China Views The U.S. Deployment Of THAAD For South Korea As A Direct Threat

Flickr/U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

Washington Times: Furious China sees U.S. missile defense plan for South Korea as direct threat

U.S. military officials are trying to pacify a furious China in the wake of Washington’s plan to deploy a battery of advanced missile defense systems in South Korea, insisting to angry military leaders in Beijing that the weapons would be solely targeting ballistic missile threats from North Korea and not undercut China’s own military deterrent.

Beijing has denounced the planned deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense weapon in South Korea and has already retaliated in ways large and small, including blocking a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning a recent North Korean missile test and canceling appearances by South Korean “K-Pop” music stars.

“If THAAD is deployed, it will sour [South Korea‘s] relations with China and Russia, trigger an arms race and damage trade,” the state-controlled China Daily newspaper wrote in an editorial Thursday. “It will make it difficult for the country to seek cooperation from China and Russia in denuclearizing the peninsula.”

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WNU Editor: The problem is not the deployment of THAAD .... the problem is North Korea. But China does not see it that way.