Vol. 80/No. 29 August 8, 2016
Protests in S. Korea oppose plan for US missile system
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system — which combines high-power radar with an interceptor missile battery — is scheduled to be in operation by the end of 2017. It is the latest step in U.S. imperialism’s continued aggression against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the north. The Chinese government dismissed Washington and Seoul’s claim that North Korea is the only target, saying the deployment is aimed at Beijing as well. The Russian government also objected.
The U.S. military already operates a THAAD system in Guam and two X-band radars in Japan. The system in Seongju would be able to monitor military activity deep into China.
When South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn visited Seongju July 15, he was met by a demonstration of 3,000. Hundreds have shown up for daily candlelight vigils outside the county office. The mayor and council speaker started a hunger strike July 12. Many residents traveled to Seoul to take part in a July 21 protest of 2,000 people.
Seongju, a rural area 135 miles southeast of Seoul with a population of 50,000, provides some 60 percent of all melons sold in South Korea.
Opponents of the missile deployment in parliament argue that the agreement will worsen economic relations with Beijing, South Korea’s biggest trading partner, and have called for it to be submitted to the legislature for approval.
Representatives from 44 different organizations spoke out against the deployment at a July 14 press conference in Seoul. Among them was the National Council of Churches in Korea, which issued a statement warning, “THAAD deployment will provoke a strong reaction from North Korea and aggravate the already deteriorated relation of North and South.”
Washington and Moscow partitioned the Korean Peninsula in 1945, at the end of World War II. Washington organized a brutal 1950-53 war there to maintain its imperialist domination, and has been the main obstacle to the unification of the country ever since.
To this day, the U.S. rulers refuse to sign a peace treaty with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Washington has 28,500 soldiers stationed in South Korea and conducts regular military maneuvers against the North. In recent years it has instigated round after round of U.N. sanctions against North Korea, using Pyongyang’s limited nuclear capability as a pretext. U.S. nuclear weapons are deployed on ships and warplanes in the region.
On July 11, Pyongyang responded to the announced THAAD deployment by launching three ballistic missiles, which landed in the sea off the country’s east coast. Their range is enough to reach all of South Korea.
The Chinese government, which signed a new round of U.N. sanctions against North Korea in March, said the U.S. deployment would do nothing to end North Korea’s nuclear program and would “destabilize the regional security balance.”
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