Shown is a signboard at a bus stop in New York on March 15, 2015, to promote the bilateral alliance between South Korea and the United States. It has two photos of South Korean President Park Geun-hye recently visiting U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert at a hospital in Seoul after the envoy was injured in an attack by a knife-wielding, anti-U.S. activist. (Yonhap)
Here is the latest on the whole deploying the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea that has the Chinese worked up:
The United States has included its advanced missile-defense system as part of the support it would provide South Korea in emergency situations on the Korean Peninsula, a South Korean military source said Sunday.
“The U.S. plans to deploy a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in case of an emergency on the Korean Peninsula,” a military source told Yonhap News Agency. “My understanding is that THAAD is easily transportable with a U.S. military aircraft.”
Washington has recently hinted at the deployment of a battery on Korean soil to better deter the North’s growing nuclear and missile threats. The U.S. stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which is technically ongoing since no peace treaty has been signed to end it.
The issue of whether or not South Korea should host the American missile defense system has caused a bipartisan divide in local politics. While conservatives support the system, the liberal side has not been so welcoming since it believes the U.S. presence here undermines South Korean sovereignty. The U.S., meanwhile, claims the battery is defensive in nature. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but it seems to me the ROK government is doing a good job of using this deployment as a way to pressure the Chinese to keep the North Koreans in line. If the North Koreans do something provocative the ROK can then tell the US to deploy THAAD to South Korea which is something the Chinese do not want. This keeps the pressure on the Chinese while simultaneously maintaining South Korea’s strategic goal of balancing its relationship with both China and the US.
Kerry, Carter expected to visit S. Korea in near future: sources http://t.co/b83cS83tvO
— Yonhap News Agency (@YonhapNews) March 11, 2015
Knife attack: US, South Korea scrambling to limit repercussions http://t.co/SVeQbWWqQ9
— Nikkei Asian Review (@NAR) March 5, 2015
Doing well&in great spirits! Robyn, Sejun, Grigsby & I – deeply moved by the support! Will be back ASAP to advance US-ROK alliance! 같이 갑시다!
— Mark Lippert (@mwlippert) March 5, 2015
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Regarding Korea, China and Japan’s troubled modern history, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman seemed to side with Tokyo’s stance when she said, “Of course … it is not hard for a political leader anywhere to earn cheap applause by vilifying a former enemy. But such provocations produce paralysis, not progress.” By Park Yong-seok
This speech was probably not a good idea:
Washington said on Monday that there has been no change in U.S. policy, part of an attempt to rectify controversial remarks made by an American diplomat that seemed to position the United States with Japan on historical issues with its neighboring Asian countries.
On Monday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf expressed surprise over how Seoul had interpreted comments made by Wendy Sherman, the undersecretary of state for political affairs.
“We were, frankly, a little surprised to see that some interpreted her remarks as being directed at any particular leader in the region,” she said.
On Friday, Sherman stated in an address at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington that, “It’s not hard for a political leader anywhere to earn cheap applause by vilifying a former enemy,” words that seemed to be directed at South Korean President Park Geun-hye or Chinese President Xi Jinping, though the Asian leaders were not specifically identified.
Sherman’s remarks, which appeared to trivialize sensitive historical issues, were met with strong backlash in Seoul over the weekend, namely her claim that Seoul and Beijing “have quarreled with Tokyo over so-called comfort women from World War II.”
“There are disagreements about the content of history books and even the names given to various bodies of water,” she continued, likely referring to the dispute over the name of the body of water between Korea and Japan, designated as the East Sea in Seoul and the Sea of Japan in Tokyo. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but publicly calling out leaders like this is sure to backfire and entrench their positions. Something as sensitive as the comfort women issue I think requires more quiet back room diplomacy. The Chinese government is never going to stop using historical issues to drum up anti-Japanese sentiment to turn attention away from major domestic issues when needed. The South Korean government does this as well, the best example is when former President Lee Myung-bak was plagued by scandals so he took a trip to Dokdo to bash the Japanese and his poll numbers rose. However, if the Japanese right wing would stop making provocative statements in regards to this issue more traction in regards to reconciliation between Korea and Japan could happen.
The start of the upcoming military exercises between the US and South Korea has been released:
The South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) said that the two allies will conduct their annual joint military drills starting March 2.
Approximately ten-thousand South Korean and eight-thousand-600 U.S. troops will take part in this year’s Key Resolve exercise, which will run through March 13.
Of the involved U.S. forces, six-thousand-700 will be brought in from U.S. bases in other countries such as Japan for the computer-simulated command post exercise.
This year’s Key Resolve exercise will also involve forces from five other countries such as Australia, Canada, Denmark, France and the U.K.
In a separate exercise, South Korea and the U.S. will hold Foal Eagle from March 2 to April 24 with some 200-thousand South Korean and three-thousand-700 U.S. soldiers being mobilized.
The USS Fort Worth, a three-thousand-450-ton Freedom-class littoral combat ship (LCS), will participate in the tactical field training exercise for the first time.Equipped with a helicopter, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and 21 missiles, the Fort Worth is capable of nearing the shoreline despite the shallow waters of the Asia-Pacific. [KBS World]
You can read more at the link, but I guess we will see if the North Koreans want to respond with a provocation cycle or not.
The Korea Herald has an editorial that explains why they believe China has been so adamant at preventing the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea:
China’s dogged opposition to the potential deployment of an additional U.S. missile defense asset to South Korea has raised questions over Beijing’s true intensions, given that the interception system does not pose any serious security threat to China.
Some assume the opposition to the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense system is intended to forestall any potential negative ramifications for China’s security. Others say the dissent appears designed to weaken the South Korea-U.S. alliance.
Despite the fact that THAAD is a wholly defensive system capable of targeting only North Korean missiles directed at South Korea, top Chinese officials ― most recently China’s Defense Minister Gen. Chang Wanquan ― have repeatedly voiced opposition to THAAD.
Military experts say that, contrary to lingering speculations, THAAD could not shoot down Chinese intercontinental ballistic missiles headed for the U.S. mainland, or pose any missile threat to China, should it be based on the peninsula. [Korea Herald]
Here is what the article says about the radar being used for intelligence collection:
China may take issue with the radar system with the argument that THAAD could be used to gather intelligence about Chinese military activities. But China is already under the scrutiny of a host of U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets including military satellites, and vice versa.
You can read much more at the link, but the editorial believes this is simply a ploy by the Chinese to create tension between the US and the ROK in order to weaken the alliance.
It seems to me that it is pretty clear that the ROK wants THAAD in Korea, but the trick for them is figuring out how to deploy it without pissing off the Chinese:
With growing controversy in Northeast Asia surrounding U.S. ambitions to deploy an advanced antiballistic missile defense system on the Korean Peninsula, the Pentagon has reversed its earlier position that Seoul and Washington were discussing the issue.
In the latest media briefing, the Pentagon’s press secretary made clear the United States and South Korea are not having official discussions on possible deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, better known as Thaad.
“There are no formal consultations or discussions about Thaad with our Republic of Korea counterparts, no formal consultations about Thaad. And we want to be very clear about that,” said Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby on Friday in Washington. “We do discuss a full range of military capabilities with our allies in South Korea, of course, and some of those do include missile defense. But there are no consultations with respect to Thaad.”
Kirby said it is for the South Korean government and its people to decide what is of strategic value to their country.
The Pentagon’s verification came as Seoul, Washington, Beijing and Moscow have been engaged in an intensifying diplomatic tug-of-war in recent weeks over possible Thaad deployment. Throughout this month, defense officials in Beijing and Washington took turns nudging Seoul to make up its mind.
Thaad is a U.S. defense system designed to shoot down missiles using a hit-to-kill approach. Because it is equipped with a radar system that can cover more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles), deployment of a Thaad battery in Korea has been a sensitive issue. Both China and Russia see it as a threat to their security interests that could be used for surveillance.
Beijing and Moscow appeared to be particularly sensitive to the Thaad system because of the AN/TPY-2 – a high-resolution, rapidly deployable X-Band radar designed to detect, track and identify ballistic missiles at long distances and very high altitudes.
During a press conference Feb. 10, Kirby said South Korea and the United States were discussing possible deployment of Thaad.
“I think we all recognize the importance of the capability,” Kirby said about the Thaad system in Washington. “There are constant discussions, and certainly with our South Korean allies about that.”
While offering no details, Kirby said, “It’s an important capability. It’s one that we talk to them about. That’s really as far as I can go today.”
Another U.S. government official, Lt. Col. Jeff Pool, a Pentagon press officer, supported Kirby’s earlier comments, saying officials in Washington and Seoul often talked informally about Thaad, although there never was an official discussion.
“It would be untruthful to say we haven’t informally discussed [it] because we already had a site survey in the ROK [South Korea] and Gen. [Curtis] Scaparrotti said he wanted it,” Pool told Korean correspondents in Washington, referring to earlier statements by senior U.S. defense officials. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link.
