US seeks to ease Chinese anger over missile defense plans

After the Security Council meeting last Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power rejected suggestions the decision to deploy the anti-missile defense system in South Korea had provoked ballistic missile tests by North Korea.

In addition to last month’s confirmation by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service that North Korea is selling fishing licenses to China near the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea, it’s been revealed that the same goes for the NLL in the East Sea.

Syring, director of the Missile Defense Agency, speaks to the media at the Defense Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016. Rather, they said, they would seek to meet with Chinese scholars to understand China’s stance on the THAAD issue and discuss ways to prevent bilateral relations from worsening further.

But such comments have done little to appease Beijing, which says the weapons system is a Washington scheme to increase the USA military presence in the Pacific, posing a direct threat to China’s military interests in the region.

China proposed that the statement also say “all relevant parties shall avoid taking any actions which could provoke each other and escalate tensions, and shall not deploy any new anti-ballistic missile stronghold in Northeast Asia with an excuse of dealing with threats of the DPRK nuclear and missile programs”.

Ms. Park’s government has been “driven into a tight corner by the strong criticism and protest against the THAAD deployment from not only the South Korean public, but also from all Koreans and global society”, according to a statement by a spokesman for the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country given to China’s official Xinhua News Agency.

Many politicians and liberal activists are calling for the government to reconsider deploying the missile defense system, and people around the country have continued holding rallies against the planned THAAD deployment.

In the latest act of provocation on August 3, North Korea fired what appeared to be a medium-range Rodong missile, which has an estimated range of up to 1,300 kilometers, making it capable of reaching as far as Japan.

Syring said the system is strictly defensive in nature and had successfully intercepted targets in 13 out of 13 tests.

The latter told reporters that the THAAD-based missile defense system is a way to deter North Korea.