South Korea's THAAD missile dispute with China- Yoon's self inflicted damage

According to an interview with a South Korean political analyst who has studied the THAAD issue, Kim Jong-tae, ( "저런 스투피드들이 외교를 하니…" 김종대 ) Yoon Seok-yeol, for campaign purposes, simply adopted a deviation from bi-partisan consensus regarding THAAD when he sought to reject the Moon Jae-in administration's "three nos policy." Yoon initially indicated his intention to deploy more THAAD batteries in a facebook post during South Korea's presidential election campaign. This was a part of Yoon's red baiting policy to paint then outgoing President Moon Jae-in as an appeaser to communists. Yoon has no idea what he is doing. Former president Park Geun-hye, who had consented to the deployment of THAAD batteries in South Korea prior to Moon's administration, had no idea what she was doing either, she was impeached, in part, for her incompetence, and neglect of her office. The Moon administration expended a great diplomatic effort to resolve the issue with China which had resulted in serious damage to South Korean Chinese relations and the South Korean economy. Why raise the dispute again? THAAD doesn't protect South Korea from North Korean missiles. Hankyoreh submits that this is a new development based on relatively recent observations of North Korean missile testing. It likely never afforded protection against North Korea's shorter range missiles. Moreover, South Korea has no control over how US ABM systems are used. According to the analyst, they are under the control of the US Indo-Pacific Command, which in itself, is an erosion of South Korean sovereignty. Yoon thought he could gain legitimacy simply by blind adherence to US initiatives. Public support for the Yoon administration is remarkably low at this point. The South Korean military doesn't support this, despite the US analysts who assert otherwise. According to Kim Jong-tae, South Korea's military want their own missile systems, under their own control. Control of Combined Forces Command during wartime is another political goal of the South Korean defense establishment, which the US has been stalling for years.

Yoon can talk tough about China but there is little inclination inside South Korea to repeat the earlier THAAD crisis in relations with China that Moon Jae-in's three nos policy resolved in October 2017. On VOA's Washington Talk program, US "experts" complained South Korea had been giving Taiwan the "cold shoulder." Why should South Korea participate in a dispute which others have unwisely precipitated? Any repetition of the economic impact similar to that which accompanied the prior THAAD dispute with Beijing is not desired by sane South Koreans. After the presidential office issued a recent statement to the press saying that THAAD operations in Seongju would be "normalized," they called upon the press to change the statement to "the American base in Seongju will be normalized," meaning that there would be permanent improvements on the facility for the US troops there, a statement only somewhat less incendiary. The presidential office didn't want China to misunderstand the statement as some direct confrontation. Further tangible and public South Korea official repudiation of the three nos policy will likely meet with a far more serious and lengthly economic impact than the 2017 episode. In addition to the impact on trade figures and corporate revenues, there would be an equally serious opportunity cost in terms of future economic development with China that would be permanently lost. No one is going to compensate South Korea for such losses undertaken to please other foreign interests.


[News analysis] Why China is so wary of S. Korea's THAAD anti-missile system
Posted on : Aug.12,2022 17:21 KST Modified on : Aug.12,2022 17:21 KST
https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/1054570.html

[박정호의 핫스팟] "저런 스투피드들이 외교를 하니…" 김종대 "'사드 상처' 왜 헤집나, 선무당 사람잡나"
OhMyNews Hotspot 8.14 youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrCE5gfmoz0

VOA [워싱턴 톡] “중국 ‘3불 요구’...북중러 협력 가속화”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G7THUiX7E8&t=76s