SoKor Tells China: It's In Our Interest Not To Limit U.S. Missile Shield

China and South Korea clashed on Thursday, August 11, 2022, over a US missile defense shield, threatening to undermine efforts by the new government in Seoul to overcome longstanding security differences, Hyonhee Shin reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: The disagreement over the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system installed in South Korea emerged after an apparently smooth first visit to China by South Korea's foreign minister this week.

The disagreement over the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system installed in South Korea emerged after an apparently smooth first visit to China by South Korea's foreign minister this week.

China, contending that the THAAD's powerful radar could peer into its airspace, curbed trade and cultural imports after Seoul announced its deployment in 2016, dealing a major blow to relations, Soo-hyang Choi and Yew Lun Tian also reported for Reuters.

A senior official in South Korea's presidential office told reporters on Thursday that THAAD is a means of self-defense and can never be subject to negotiations after China demanded that South Korea not deploy any more batteries and limit the use of existing ones.

President Yoon Suk-yeol, seeing the system as key to countering North Korean missiles, has vowed to abandon the previous government's promises not to increase THAAD deployments, and not to participate in a US-led global missile shield or create a trilateral military alliance involving Japan.

On the campaign trail, the conservative Yoon pledged to buy another THAAD battery, but since taking office in May, his government has focused on what officials call "normalizing" the operation of the existing US-owned and operated system.

South Korea's Foreign Minister Park Jin and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, meeting on Tuesday, explored ways to reopen denuclearization negotiations with North Korea. The Chinese spokesman told a briefing the THAAD deployment in South Korea "undermines China's strategic security interest."

Park told Wang that Seoul would not abide by the 2017 agreement, called the "Three Nos," as it is not a formal pledge or agreement. Critics said China’s demand means that it wants to craft South Korea’s foreign policy.

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