Residents Protest Against Deployment of THAAD to South Korea
It looks like the “Not In My Backyard” crowd has already started protesting the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea:
The official announcement of deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system in Korea is bringing a huge backlash from residents of areas which are rumored to be candidate sites for the system.
People in the regions claim the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) will pose serious health risks to them and environmental damage due to strong electromagnetic waves.
Immediately after the announcement Friday, residents in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, and Waegwan of Chilgok County in North Gyeongsang Province, the two key candidate locations, expressed vehement opposition.
A coalition of 25 civic groups in Pyeongtaek, where the United States Forces Korea (USKF) headquarters will be moved, said they will hold a press conference on July 19 to announce their protest plans to block the possible deployment there.
“The noise and electromagnetic waves emanating from THAAD radar will pose grave health threats to residents here,” the coalition said in a statement. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but like most Korean protests these people are blatantly lying to get public sentiment behind them. Anyone can Google and find out the safe keep out zones for the THAAD radar. In fact it is published in the draft Environmental Assessment document for the THAAD unit on Guam that can be downloaded at this link. Here is an excerpt from the document that discusses the safe keep out zones for the radar:
Operation of the THAAD battery requires the following exclusion zones along +/- 90 degrees of the axis of orientation of the THAAD radar system to avoid injury to personnel and damage to equipment from electromagnetic radiation (EMR) emitted from that radar: 328 feet (100 meters) for personnel, 1,640 feet (500 meters) for equipment, and 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) for aircraft. An earthen berm in front of the radar further reduces the ground-level EMR exposure risks. For aircraft, a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) was established for the THAAD expeditionary mission starting in April 2013. The airspace coordination procedures for this flight restriction were documented in a Letter of Agreement between the Army, USAF, FAA, and Guam Air Route Traffic Control Center. Under Alternative 1, the TFR would continue to be used during THAAD radar operations.
So unless the THAAD radar is sitting 100 meters directly in front of someones house they will not be exposed to harmful EMR. Aircraft will need to stay 5.5 kilometers away from the radar which as the document shows on Guam they put restricted airspace measures over the radar site. These same safety measures will have to be done in Korea which I am sure USFK planners will do.
Gotta love the hangul transliteration for THAAD – which is 사드 – pronounced exactly as the word “sod.”
Most people who post at this site know at least a little bit of Korean, and know there are some pronunciations in English that just don’t conform to hangul. And unlike English – where spelling only loosely determines the pronunciation of many words – words written in hangul are generally pronounced exactly as they are written. The “th” sound in English is one of those that doesn’t conform to hangul. Usually Koreans just drop the “h” sound in this case and use a “t” sound; and would pronounce this “tod” or maybe “tad” if they first heard the way Americans pronounce it.
A word that has “th” in the middle or at the end of it sometimes does come out in Korean with an “s” sound (the name Smith for example, which is written as “스미스.” But it’s kind of unusual for the “s” sound to be used for words starting with “th.”
@Guitard, I never noticed the hangul spelling; thanks for sharing. Koreans that I talk to are usually able to pronounce THAAD somewhat correctly.
Most Koreans know the basics of English and have been taught how to phonetically pronounce roman letters. Probably the first and most common “th” word they’ve seen is the word “three.” If they pronounce 3 well I think their first attempt to pronounce THAAD would sound very much like ours would.
I stand corrected! I was at a briefing this morning and a ROK officer was clearly pronouncing it with the “th” sound while briefing it in Korean. He even used the proper vowel sound. I glanced at his briefing notes and noticed he wrote everything in hangul, except the word THAAD – which he wrote in English.
Well, After all the fake drama from Beijing over missiles and fishing, THAAD is very much like saying “sod u” to the PRC…