ASEAN’s grave concern over North Korea missile launches

Despite Chinese protests, the US and South Korean governments have pushed forward with deployment of the Thaad battery, citing North Korea’s continued provocations. The Chinese foreign ministry said Tuesday that foreign companies that follow the law are welcome.

Diplomats said the move might reassure US allies but could backfire by antagonizing China, which regards the system as a threat, and make it less willing to step up sanctions on its neighbor.

Pyongyang test-fired a new intermediate ballistic missile on February 12, the first missile launch since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January.

Previously, Washington and Seoul chose to deploy THAAD at the end of the year, a time when South Korea usually holds a presidential election every five years. A trade war only hurts both sides, he added.

Glazer said she saw no good military option.

But ties have since deteriorated over the missile shield known as Thaad.

Today, China’s state-run People’s Daily warns, “THAAD in South Korea will bring arms race in the region as the US missile defense (MD) strategy can be likened to a fight between spear and shield”.

He also said South Korea is making a mistake in deploying the USA anti-missile defence system THAAD, which he said undermined China’s security.

The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday condemned North Korea’s recent ballistic missile launches and expressed concern over the country’s increasingly destabilizing behavior and defiance of the 15-member body.

In his telling, China is the signalman working to avert disaster – not, as some US observers might have it, a conductor in its own right. “It is hard in the Chinese system to show economic friendship, or even economic neutrality, during moments of political friction”.

But with its specifications secret and having never been used in wartime, THAAD’s ability to deal with a barrage of missiles at the same time is uncertain. Beijing has worked to curb North Korean coal imports.

Kim has accelerated his efforts to acquire the ability to hit the continental United States with a nuclear warhead since six-party talks collapsed in 2009. China should prepare itself for all eventualities. The region’s current challenges could present an opportunity for it to mature China will continue to uphold multilateralism and economic opening in the face of rising protectionism.

“We are not dealing with a rational person”, Haley told reporters.

With tensions rising again, attitudes among officials and North Korea watchers are now diverging over how to approach the North, Delury said. Lotte Group agreed to turn over a golf course to the South Korean government to house the THAAD system days earlier. That’s according to The Chosun Ilbo in South Korea.

Citing a foreign ministry spokesman, it said the Security Council had “wantonly violated a sovereign state’s right to self-defence”. “Responses will be taken via worldwide law should China violate WTO or Korea-China free trade agreement rules”.