SK missile defenses take shape as NK signals possible nuclear tests
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HOURS after a display of North Korean military power, rival South Korea yesterday announced the installation of key parts of a contentious US missile defense system.
South Korea’s trumpeting of progress in setting up the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, comes as high-powered US military vessels converge on the Korean Peninsula and as a combative North Korea signals possible nuclear and missile testing.
The defense system will be operational in the next few days, according to Admiral Harry Harris, who heads Pacific Command, and “able to better defend South Korea against the growing North Korean threat.”
Harris also said the US military is weighing whether it needs to install new missile interceptors on Hawaii, which could be one of the first parts of the United States to be in range of a North Korean missile.
“I have suggested we put interceptors in Hawaii,” he told the House Armed Services Committee yesterday.
North Korea conducted live-fire artillery drills on Tuesday, the 85th anniversary of the founding of its million-person Korean People’s Army.
On the same day, a US guided-missile submarine docked in South Korea.
The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier is also headed toward the peninsula for a joint exercise with South Korea.
The moves to set up THAAD have angered not only North Korea, but also China. China and Russia see the system’s powerful radars as a security threat.
South Korea said in a statement yesterday that Seoul and Washington have been pushing to get THAAD working to cope with North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile threats.
According to the Yonhap news agency, the parts include two or three launchers, intercept missiles and a radar.
Some people near the site in the country’s southeast are worried that THAAD may cause health problems, and thousands of police officers assembled yesterday, blocking the main road, Yonhap reported. About 500 protesters rallied, and 13 villagers and police officers were injured in scuffles.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the system’s deployment would “disrupt the regional strategic balance and further aggravate the tension on the peninsula.”
Geng said “China will firmly be taking necessary measures to defend our own interests.” China’s defense ministry has also repeatedly criticized THAAD’s deployment and said the military will take unspecified actions in response.
On Tuesday, North Korea conducted what it called its largest ever combined live-fire drills, near the east coast port of Wonsan.
Yesterday, North Korea’s official media reported that leader Kim Jong Un personally observed the exercises, which involved the firing of more than 300 large-caliber artillery pieces and included torpedo attacks on mock enemy warships.
The USS Michigan, a nuclear-powered submarine, arrived at the South Korean port of Busan on Tuesday for what was described as a routine visit to rest crew and load supplies. The US 7th Fleet said two American destroyers were conducting maritime exercises with ships from South Korea and Japan.
North Korea routinely accuses the US of readying for an invasion, and threatens pre-emptive strikes to stop it. An unidentified North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said the US administration’s policy to maximize pressure on North Korea was “little short of lighting the fuse of total war,” the state news agency reported on Tuesday.
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