Defense ministers from the two countries are set to discuss possible deployment at Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore
The South Korean Minister of Defense is about to meet his US counterpart, but defense officials from the two countries are not on the same page about deploying the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Air Defense) missile defense system with US forces in South Korea.
US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said that he will discuss the possible deployment of THAAD when he meets South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo in Singapore during the Asia Security Summit (Shangri-La Dialogue), news website Breaking Defense reported on June 2.
The Shangri-La Dialogue, which is taking place from June 3 to 5, is a multilateral security forum held in Singapore every year. Carter and Han are planning to meet on their own on June 4.
“It’s not something we need to discuss much [. . .] because the plans are moving forward,” Carter said in regard to deploying THAAD.
A senior official in the US Defense Department was also quoted as saying that there will be “a public announcement soon” about THAAD.
But the senior official in South Korea’s Defense Ministry who is responsible for preparing for the meeting between Carter and Han told reporters in Singapore on June 4 that the two officials would not be discussing THAAD during the meeting.
“The US-South Korea joint working group that was set up in March is discussing the question of deploying THAAD. There is nothing to announce for the time being,” the official said.
Prior to that, the Defense Ministry released a position statement in Seoul in which it stated that Carter and Han were not planning to discuss the THAAD issue during the Shangri-La Dialogue.
This is not the first time that South Korea and the US have marched to a different beat in regard to THAAD. Until South Korea and the US went public with their deliberations about deploying THAAD after North Korea launched a long-range missile on Feb. 7, the two sides had looked like odd dance partners, with the US taking the lead as South Korea dragged its feet.
Remarks were made by various US officials that the two sides were discussing the idea of deploying THAAD, but each time South Korea repeated the “three nos”: no request, no deliberation and no decision.
This difference appears to result from the fact that the two sides have drawn different conclusions about the sensitivity of this issue.
For the US, deploying THAAD is a strategic move aimed at simultaneously checking North Korea and China. But South Korea is obliged to pay attention to China’s opposition to THAAD. Given the negative ramifications that deploying the weapon system could have on South Korea’s economic relations with China, along with the fact that China’s cooperation is critical to sanctions against North Korea, Seoul seems set on slowing things down.
Domestically, the question of where to deploy THAAD is politically explosive and could provoke anger from locals. There is no reason to rush the deployment.
By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer of the Hankyoreh Newspaper
