The highly controversial Thaad Missile Defense System has now been deployed in South Korea. Its arrival on Thursday drew hundreds of protesters who were strongly opposed to its deployment in their country, believing that it will do more harm than good to the South Koreans.
The United States THAAD missile defense system
Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said that another potential intercontinental ballistic missile will be fired by North Korea come Saturday, the Guardian reported. So an effective measure must be put in place before anything bad might happen, the Prime Minister added.
The US THAAD missile defense system was deployed for that purpose.
During a meeting in Seoul on Thursday, Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon told South Korea’s defense ministers that the nuclear crisis has gone extremely grave. He believed that there is not much time left before Kim Jong-un’s communist regime will finally accomplish the totality of its nuclear armament.
THAAD or diplomatic solution?
A protest was already taking place during the arrival of the final parts of the US missile defense system at a South Korean base on Thursday. And amid a huge number of police, protesters overwhelmingly thronged the area and tried to barricade the road in which the military men were cautiously transporting the remaining parts of THAAD.
The final parts included four more missile interceptor launchers and were brought to a base in Seongju, which is approximately 186 miles south of Seoul.
There are still officials who who were vocal in their opposition to the deployment of THAAD missile defense system in South Korea. Geng Shuangm, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, warned against its deployment.
He claimed that the the defense system can apparently harm the strategic security balance in the region.
On Thursday, President Moon Jae-in met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a meeting in Vladivostok where the two attended the Eastern Economic Forum, which was hosted by President Vladimir Putin. After the meeting was concluded, both Moon and Abe issued a statement containing their intentions of imposing stronger sanctions and pressures against Jong-un’s regime.
The two leaders preferred putting the North on a corner rather than making a dialogue with it which seemed ineffective for the last few years.
Following this statement, the Russian President and China’s President saw that their involvement in this move was indeed paramount. Consequently, both Putin and Xi Jinping agreed to work with Abe and Moon towards achieving this goal.
