This is probably not much of a surprise to people following this issue:
The militaries of South Korea and the United States are expected to announce a golf course as the new site for an advanced American antimissile system this week, a defense official here said Sunday.
According to the defense ministry official, evaluations for three candidate sites to host the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in Seongju County, located in the southeastern part of the nation, “are virtually complete.” The announcement will likely be made before the end of September after the military briefs Seongju residents on its decision. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but the government still faces two problems before the THAAD site can be established. First of all, according to the article Lotte wants $90.6 million to hand over the golf course which will require additional funds from the National Assembly. The second issue they face is that the citizens of Gimcheon plan to launch full scale protests to stop the THAAD deployment.
Next year the US military will be testing the THAAD missile system against a North Korean Musudan target:
In this photo taken on Aug. 11, 2016, U.S. Missile Defense Agency Director Vic Adm. James D. Syring answers questions from South Korean reporters on the planned deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea by 2017 to counter growing threats from North Korea during a group interview held at South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters in Seoul. (Yonhap)
The United States will carry out an interception test against Musudan-type intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBM) next year with its advanced missile defense system, following successful trials on short and mid-range missiles, Washington’s missile defense chief said Thursday.
“As those (short-range and mid-range) tests have been done over a period of years and as that success has been achieved (with missile defense shield), we move to longer-range tests,” U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Director Vice Admiral James D. Syring said in a group interview with local reporters at South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters in Seoul.
The agency chief said next year, the U.S. will test the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system against IRBMs to better counter the growing threats from North Korea in the Indo-Asia Pacific region. North Korea’s Musudan missiles are IRBM with a range of more than 3,000 kilometers and a capability of striking the U.S. territory of Guam and Japan. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but for those wondering how effective the THAAD interceptor is, it has been successful in 13 of 13 of its past tests to include shooting down six missiles that replicated current North Korean missiles.
No matter where the THAAD radar is located it will be radiating over somebody so I don’t see what moving the site really gains the government other than a large construction bill and an extended deployment timeline:
A placard that reads “No THAAD in Gimcheon” is hung in Joma Township in Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, Friday. Residents there hung three such placards amid rumors that Geumsu Township in Seongju Country near Joma Township could be an alternative site for a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery. / Korea Times
The government is facing growing doubts over whether it will can allow the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile battery by next year after President Park Geun-hye raised the possibility of choosing an alternative location within Seongju County in North Gyeongsang Province.
Park said this during a meeting with ruling party lawmakers, Thursday, in an effort to calm the fears of Seongju residents over the safety of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. However, military officials say it will take considerable time to find a new site and build a base for an artillery unit, which means deploying the system by next year would be almost impossible.
On July 13, the Ministry of National Defense announced that the anti-missile battery will be set up in Seongsan-ri, which is currently home to the South Korean Air Force’s air defense artillery unit that operates a Hawk ground-to-air missile battery. The ministry said THAAD will be fully deployed by the end of next year as threats from North Korea’s nuclear and missile program are growing.
“The reason why the two countries can be sure that the deployment will be done by next year is that the artillery unit already exists in Seongsan-ri, meaning that the military does not need to build a site,” a military official said on condition of anonymity.
Finding a new suitable place and building another site from scratch would take at least four to five years and tens of billions of won as the military needs to remove the top of a mountain and purchase adjacent privately owned land. In this case, the deployment is impossible within Park’s tenure and will be handed over to the next government as she completes her term in office in February 2018. [Korea Times]
Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning was in Korea and told the ROK media that along with the deployment of the THAAD battery the US is also looking to upgrade its remaining Patriot PAC-2 batteries to the more advanced PAC-3 configuration:
The United States will focus on upgrading the Patriot PAC-2 missile systems in South Korea to the more advanced PAC-3 anti-missile shield to better protect the Seoul metropolitan areas by 2018, the U.S. Army’s senior civilian official said Tuesday.
“Right now, we are focusing on upgrading the Patriot system that we have here in Korea,” United States Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning told Yonhap News Agency in a group interview held in the Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul.
He didn’t specifically confirm local reports that Seoul and Washington are planning to replace the PAC-2 system currently in the country with the more lethal PAC-3 system by the end of 2018, although he hinted that such a move is likely.
“I have seen the potential for the upgrades,” the 47-year-old official said during the interview while he visited the 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at the air base, adding that the change to a PAC-3 from PAC-2 will allow forces in the country to better cope with evolving nuclear and missile threats from North Korea. [Yonhap]
Here is what he had to say about the health effects of the THAAD radar:
Asked about local concerns of health risks that might be caused by the powerful radar used in the anti-missile defense system, he pointed out that examination of electromagnetic waves from the operational THAAD battery in Guam showed clearly it poses no problems. The U.S. allowed a group of Korean reporters to visit the U.S. territory and check the level of electromagnetic waves emanating from the AN/TPY-2 radar.
Despite the test results, residents in Seongju, 296 kilometers south of Seoul, have asked the deployment plan to be scrapped, saying that they cannot trust the results. Seoul had tapped the rural town as the site for South Korea’s first THAAD battery last month, with the interceptor system to be operational by 2017.
Visiting U.S. Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning (C) poses with U.S. soldiers in front of Patriot PAC-3 advanced missiles during a visit to the 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade of the U.S. Forces Korea’s (USFK) Eighth Army in Osan, south of Seoul, on Aug. 2, 2016. The brigade in charge of intercepting North Korean missiles is expected to run the THAAD missile defense system to be deployed in the country’s southeastern town of Seongju as well. THAAD stands for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense. (Yonhap)
A ROK Drop favorite Bruce Klingner has an article published which provides his response to critics of the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea:
South Korea critics claim fears of radiation risks from the missile shield’s radar, saying it would kill bees and irradiate melons. The U.S. invited South Korean media to the missile shield’s deployment site on Guam for independent tests. Measured levels of the electromagnetic waves emanating from the radar revealed the system operates at an intensity far safer than required by Korean law, i.e. the radar emitted only 0.007 percent of the 10 watts per square meter allowed under Korean standards. Rep. Madeleine Bordallo, D-Guam, told South Korean reporters that there have been no signs of environmental impact nor any noise complaints from the defense system’s deployment on the island.
Critics fail to understand that North Korea will continue to develop nuclear-tipped missiles regardless of whether the advanced defense system is deployed or not. If THAAD were to intercept even one North Korean nuclear missile, it would save hundreds of thousands of South Korean and U.S. lives. [The Daily Signal]
You can read more at the link, but Mr. Klingner is absolutely correct that North Korea is going to continue to develop their nuclear and missile programs regardless of what happens with the THAAD issue.
Here is the latest on the THAAD protesting front. Only getting 2,000 protesters in Seoul to include people that were bused in from Seongju is not very impressive. This is not a good sign for the Korean left if they think the anti-THAAD issue is something that can evolve into another 2008 US beef crisis:
About 2,000 people rallied outside the main train station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 21, 2016. Wearing yellow capes and waving banners that said “No THAAD,” they called on the government to reverse its decision to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system in Seongju. KIM GAMEL/STARS AND STRIPES
Protesters, especially residents of the farming region of Seongju, fear the system’s powerful radar will be harmful to their health as well as the environment and the economy despite insistence by U.S. and South Korean officials that it is safe. Many also accuse the government of a lack of transparency in making the decision.
About 2,000 people, including many bused in from Seongju, rallied outside the main train station in the capital, Seoul, on Thursday. Wearing yellow capes and waving banners that said “No THAAD,” they called on the government to reverse its decision. Many protesters refused to talk to the media.
A small group of THAAD supporters gathered nearby. “This is very important for the national security,” said Jaechul Ahn, chairman of the World Peace Freedom United group. “We should know that North Korea never changes their goal of the colonization of the whole peninsula.” [Stars & Stripes]
Why isn’t the Korean left busy protesting this radar and claiming it will make people sick and cause crop failures?:
A U.S. Patriot missile battery in Japan has been brought to South Korea for a joint exercise amid growing concerns about additional provocations from North Korea, an official of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said, Friday.
The Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-3 interceptor unit of the U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ), stationed at the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, arrived in Busan on July 13 and is now participating in a drill with South Korean military in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province.
The Patriot unit is made up of 120 troops, with a launch vehicle and radar.
It is the first time a Japan-based U.S. Patriot battery has been sent to South Korea.
“The PAC-3 unit is currently training with South Korean troops,” the USFK official told reporters. “The unit will return to Japan after completing the training scheduled to last two weeks.” [Korea Times]
The US and ROK militaries have a number of Patriot sites in South Korea and the Korean left does not protest them because there is no political advantage in doing so like there is with the planned deployment of the THAAD battery to Korea. The Patriots have been South Korea for decades and no one is getting sick or having their crops fail. The same will eventually be true with the THAAD battery as well.
The Korean government has realized that the only card the protesters of the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system have to play is that the electromagnetic waves from the radar will harm people. This is a well used tactic by leftists protesters and their media allies which worked brilliantly for them in 2008 when they passed off lies about US beef that nearly toppled then President Lee Myung-Bak:
The U.S. military will open its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) base in Guam to the South Korean media next week in an effort to dispel concerns here over deployment of the anti-missile system, according to military sources, Wednesday.
“The U.S. Army will open its THAAD facilities in Guam to South Korean journalists from July 17 to 19,” a military official said. “It will help them understand how the battery is operated and address any concerns about safety issues.”
It is the first time the U.S. Army has allowed foreign media access to the THAAD facilities, according to the official.
The South Korean military said journalists from seven outlets, including Hankyoreh and the Chosun Ilbo, will visit the base.
The move is seen as an attempt to quell controversy in South Korea over a THAAD deployment and ease public concerns over potentially harmful electromagnetic waves from the X-band radar that comes with the system. [Korea Times]
Here is the part of the article that I have been saying for months, the ROK already has air defense radars deployed around the country and no one protested them:
“Questions over harmful effects of electromagnetic waves emitted from THAAD’s X-band radar have been raised,” a defense ministry official said. “But they are no stronger than patriot or green pine radar. We are hoping to ease safety concerns surrounding the THAAD system.”
