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통일 미래 길잡이/외국인대학생기자단

Is THAAD officially going to deploy to South Korea?

The Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) is a ground-based theater missile defense system designed to protect forward-deployed military forces, population centers, and civilian assets from the entire spectrum of theater ballistic missile attacks. 

North Korea had conducted several ballistic missile test recently. The latest missile flew between 500 kms to 600 kms off to east coast. It could have hit anywhere in South Korea if it was intended so. South Korean president Park Geun-Hye said on Thursday deploying THAAD is "inevitable" because of growing threat from North Korea. Accordingly this month South Korea and the US announced to deploy theater high altitude area defense (THAAD) unit with the US military in Seongju, rural melon farming country in the South. Following the decision, the government faces huge opposition from residents of Seongju. The residents worries about possible negative health and environment impacts and demanding to scrap the decision to site the THAAD battery in Seongju. "If we continue to be divisive and social confusion grows about a decision we had no choice but to make to protect the country and the lives of our people, it would be exactly where North Korea wants us to go," Park said. Along with residents of Seongju, many people joined by opposition members of parliament and civic groups. Thousands of protesters excepted to protest on rally in Central Seoul. When prime minister went to Seongju to explain THAAD's decision, he was pelted with eggs and plastic bottles and trapped inside a bus for several hours. The two Koreas remain technically at war under a truce that ended fighting from 1950 to 1953 Korean War. Uniting South and North Korea is the best way to bring peace not only in Korean peninsula but also in North East-Asia.  

 

Sites: 

https://uchiblog.wordpress.com/2016/07/21/is-thaad-officially-going-to-deploy-to-south-korea/