Reversing the previous South Korean Administration's policy of kowtowing to China, South Korea is moving ahead with installing more US made THAAD anti-missile systems to protect their country from North Korea.
This in sharp contrast to South Korea’s previous president, Moon Jae-in, a left winger, who bowed to Chinese demands by pledging to obey the so-called "Three Nos":
1) Not deploying any additional THAAD systems beyond the one already deployed
2) Not participating U.S.-led missile defense networks
3) Not being part of a trilateral alliance with Washington and Tokyo.
This is good news, and the U.S. should be working with Tokyo, Seoul, Australia, Taiwan, Vietnam, etc to contain the ChiCom aggressive moves to expand territory and influence.. and wouldn’t form a trilateral military alliance with Washington and Tokyo.
South Korea has has powerful industrial base and a large well-equipped military. While its military is not the equal of China's, it could easily defeat North Korea's military which is why Kim Jung Un has been so frantic to obtain nuclear weapons as his out of date, underfed conventional military is completely outclassed by that of South Korea. Without nukes, Kim Jung Un could be safely ignored and he would have very little presence on the world stage.
Note: While the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), which is designed to defend against against short, medium, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, is certainly not 100 percent effective, it does create uncertainty that an attack with a few nuclear missiles would be successful, and that is why China and North Korea oppose it.
For more details see the story in Defense News: China, South Korea clash over THAAD anti-missile system (defensenews.com)
Comments