The White House is considering direct military action to counter North Korea

The White House is considering military options to counter aggression from Kim Jong Un, the dictatorial leader of North Korea, the Wall Street Journal reported this week.

However, the US and South Korea maintain that THAAD is a defensive measure against Pyongyang.

The article not only called for Lotte Group’s presence in China to “come to an end”, but all South Korean exports.

Foal Eagle – a field-training exercise involving ground, air, naval and special operations forces – began Wednesday amid a spike in tensions after North Korea test-fired an intermediate-range missile on February 12.

Photos from the protest only went viral on Chinese social media today. South Korean artists have also said performances had been cancelled without clear explanation.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se had also on Tuesday called upon the worldwide community for “extraordinary measures” against Pyongyang.

Additionally, South Korean people residing near the land, which was turned over to the military by the Lotte Group, have taken legal action against the country’s Defense Ministry.

During his presidential campaign, Trump urged Seoul to take care of its defense expenses and suggested that both South Korea and Japan, U.S. biggest allies in the region, should get nuclear weapons and defend themselves instead of relying on U.S. security guarantees. China has said the powerful radar capability of the system would allow the United States to snoop on northeast China, and possibly on Chinese military activity.

It was clear to the Japanese side that those options encompassed a USA military strike on North Korea, possibly if Pyongyang appeared ready to test an ICBM, this person said.

As the THAAD technology allows missiles to reach well into China and Russian Federation, however, both nations have objected to its presence on the continent. On a current events debate program on Phoenix Television on March 1, some of the panelists said that the current rhetoric about “semi-severance of diplomatic relations” was unreasonable and emphasized that South Korea was an “uncommon” partner for China.

“China makes up 29 percent of Lotte’s global market, and it is poised to respond to the South Korean enterprise, which has benefited greatly from China but harms the country’s national interests”, Haunqui (Global Times) wrote last Tuesday.

But the view from China is different, says Chu Shulong, an analyst with the Institute of International Strategic and Development Studies at Tsinghua University. Early last month, Trump’s defense secretary, James Mattis, said the administration is committed to carrying through with the THAAD deal, prompting swift criticism from the Chinese.

The U.S. review comes as recent events have strained regional stability.