Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - A spat between China and South Korea on Thursday over a US missile defence shield threatened to derail ef...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - A spat between China and South Korea on Thursday over a US missile defence shield threatened to derail efforts by the new Seoul government to resolve long-standing security issues.
This week, the South Korean foreign minister's maiden trip to China appeared to go without incident until a disagreement over the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system was revealed.
After Seoul revealed the THAAD's deployment in 2016, ties took a serious hit as China restricted commercial and cultural imports, claiming that the THAAD's potent radar could peer into its airspace.
After China demanded that South Korea stop deploying new batteries and restrict the use of existing ones, a senior official in the South Korean presidential office told reporters on Thursday that THAAD is a tool for self-defense and cannot ever be the topic of negotiations.
President Yoon Suk-yeol has vowed to break the previous administration's vows not to boost THAAD deployments, join in a U.S.-led global missile shield, or form a trilateral military alliance with Japan because he views the system as essential to fighting North Korean missiles.
Conservative Yoon made a campaign commitment to purchase a second THAAD battery, but since taking office in May, his administration has put its attention on "normalising" the system's current U.S.-owned and operated operation.
In a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Tuesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin discussed methods to restart talks with North Korea about denuclearization and recommence exports of K-pop music and movies to China.
The two "agreed to take each other's genuine concerns seriously and continue to carefully handle and correctly manage this matter to ensure that it does not become a stumbling block to the sound and steady evolution of bilateral relations," a Wang spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The THAAD deployment in South Korea, according to the Chinese official, "undermines China's strategic security interest."
However, according to a statement from South Korea's foreign ministry, Park informed Wang that Seoul would not be bound by the 2017 agreement, sometimes known as the "Three Nos," because it is not a legally binding commitment.
China also demands that South Korea adhere by "one constraint," which is the restriction on the use of THAAD batteries currently in use. Although South Korea has never acknowledged that aspect, Wang's spokesman made clear on Wednesday that China values its stance of "three Nos and one restriction."
The THAAD policy will not alter due to China's resistance, according to Defence Minister Lee Jong-sup, and the radar of the system could not be deployed against China.
He told reporters, "The existing system is located in a location where it can solely defend the Korean peninsula. The battery is not constructed to play any part in U.S. defences.
Yoon was commended by the Chinese Communist Party-owned Global Times during Park's visit to the eastern port city of Qingdao for exercising "independent diplomacy and rationality toward China" by avoiding a face-to-face meeting with Nancy Pelosi while she was in town last week.
The THAAD problem, however, was described in the publication as "a big concealed hazard that cannot be avoided in China-South Korea relations."
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