Seoul Warms to U.S. Missile Shield

Seoul Warms to U.S. Missile Shield

South Korea is leaning toward introducing an advanced U.S. missile defense system to guard itself against threats from North Korea following Pyongyang's recent nuclear test , a bulwark strongly opposed by China.

Current and former American officials who have recently spoken with top South Korean policy makers say the country hasn't decided yet whether to adopt the system that the U.S. has offered but that informal talks between Washington and Seoul had increased recently. One American official said there was a strong chance the U.S. could announce that the two countries are in negotiations over the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or Thaad, in the next week or so.

A former U.S. official who recently met with senior South Korean officials said a consensus appeared to be forming in Seoul. "Behind the scenes it looks like Thaad is close to a done deal," this person said.

This has been creeping along slowly towards deployment for some time. Now it appears that it may become a reality over the objections from Beijing. South Korea and China have a growing economic relationship that China has mentioned may suffer from this possible deployment. It appears, Seoul might be at the point that it's more than willing to take the economic hit and looking for some sort of defense against the North's continued Nuclear and Missile developments.

The US has repeatedly asked China to take a stronger stance on the North, which may defuse this issue but so far China does not seem to be interested in reigning in their neighbor.

News report from late 2015

Published on Oct 29, 2015

A senior official from U.S. defense firm Lockheed Martin claims discussions of an official and unofficial nature are ongoing between South Korea and the United States about the possible deployment of a U.S. anti－ballistic missile system to the Korean Peninsula.
Mike Trotsky， vice president of air and missile defense at Lockheed Martin， told reporters in Washington on Thursday， local time， that the two allies are in the early stages of talks about Terminal High Altitude Area Defense... or as it is otherwise known THAAD.
The Pentagon has yet to respond to the remarks.

a reply to: SLAYER69

South Korea has every reason to be concerned with North Korea's flaunting of their nuclear arsenal. I'm surprised China has continued to put up with Kim Jong Un's nuclear tests and reckless threats. Any nuclear attack by North Korea would affect many in that region including China.

It would be irresponsible and negligent if North Korea's government ignored the threat to it's country and citizens. I say let China whine about it. They may be thanking South Korea in the near future.

a reply to: SLAYER69

The US has repeatedly asked China to take a stronger stance on the North, which may defuse this issue but so far China does not seem to be interested in reigning in their neighbor.

The PRC has always, literally, enjoyed having NK in place as a tool to keep the region a tad off balance. But times change, even for Mao's paradise. The arrival of Kim Jong Un has led to some notable deviations and extensions in NK's foreign policy and military stance facing the 38th.

China, now under pressure from its first-step copycatting of Japan's WW2 era 'Greater CoProsperity Sphere' in the Pacific, now finds itself caught between a rock and a hard place with NK's expansion in weapons technology.

It will be interesting to see how they respond...

Considering N. Korea is apparently planning a missile test it makes sense for S. Korea to look at it again.

a reply to: SLAYER69

China should have reigned in little kim.

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

Imagine if there would be no threats, and there would be no weapons to sell.. that would be really bad for the economy!
That will never happen...

The US embassy in Norway said today that NK might have been unsuccesfull of detonating a H bomb earlier this month. But US embassy said, this might indicate that NK are further a head of developing a H bomb than earler have been guessed.

Pentagon stated that there might have been Components within the H bomb that failed to set of the proper raction needed for a Complete test. Pentagon also said that NK might have gotten test charts related to the Development of a H bomb from a thrid party.
Furhter they mentioned that NK have only conducted 4 tests prior to this one, and having test Charts for a H bomb dont mean that you have the right Components set to reach the correct testresults.

edition.cnn.com...=1.32738622.1627499142.1451152310

Bwahahaha NO ONE KNOWS whats happening in N.Korea.

When will people understand that concept?


S.Korea can arm themselves to the hilt but that won't help in the overall objective but ruin their "way of life" - which the united states doesn't have in their conscious nor the M.I.C.'s.

#War is good - Peace is Bad#

Seoul couldn't pick its way out of a wet paper bag given 2weeks notice.

Yet unfamiliar fools on ATS believe that out of all sources, CNN as 'fact'. Let alone Cnn couldn't even identify Ukraine on a friggin map. . . SMH

Don't forget Russia also borders the Korean peninsula.

a reply to: s0nny

Yes.

Very valid observation

Why would China be bothered about a missile defense system?