CHINA yesterday warned against the deployment of a controversial advanced United States missile defense system in South Korea, saying China’s security interests should not be undermined.
The South Korean government decided last year to deploy the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in response to what it claims North Korean missile threat, on land that is part of a golf course owned by Lotte in the Seongju region, southeast of Seoul.
The board of unlisted Lotte International Co. Ltd yesterday approved the deal with the South Korean government. The defense ministry and Lotte are due to sign an agreement as early as today, the South Korean ministry said.
The THAAD deployment initiated by the US and South Korea seriously undermined regional strategic balance and the strategic security interests of regional countries including China, and was not favorable to safeguarding peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said yesterday.
“China has stressed time and again that it understands the reasonable security concerns of certain parties, but one country’s security should not come at the expense of another,” Geng told a news briefing.
China regrets the persistent ignoring of its concerns over security interests, Geng said. “China expresses firm opposition and strong dissatisfaction.”
China would take necessary measures to safeguard its security interests, and the US and South Korea would have to bear all the resulting consequences, he said.
South Korea has said it and the US aim to make the system operational by the end of the year. A South Korean military official said last week the deployment could be completed by August.
The Lotte Group said on February 8 that Chinese authorities had stopped construction at its multibillion-dollar real estate project in China after a fire inspection, adding to concern in South Korea about damage to commercial relations with the world’s second-largest economy.
South Korea’s central bank said this month the number of Chinese tourists visiting the tourist island of Jeju had fallen 6.7 percent over the Lunar New Year holiday from last year.
Earlier, South Korean officials said they suspected a Chinese decision in December to deny applications from South Korean airlines to expand charter flights was “indirect” retaliation for deployment of the missile system.
But Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho later said China had not taken any retaliatory measures over the missile system that merited official response, though adding South Korea was ready to complain about any “unfair” action.
