S. Korea, US to deploy more anti-missile defenses
SEOUL — South Korea and the United States will deploy more of the anti-missile defenses hated by China in response to Sunday’s nuclear test by North Korea, Seoul’s defense ministry said Monday.
Two launchers of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system are already operational, but public concern about the possible environmental impact of the US system forced Seoul to suspend the installation.
“Four remaining launchers will soon be temporarily deployed through consultations between South Korea and the US to counter growing nuclear and missile threats from the North,” the ministry said in a statement.
The THAAD launchers are sited on a golf course-turned-US military base in Seongju County, 300 kilometers (188 miles) south of Seoul.
The deployment has infuriated China, which has long argued it will destabilize the region and has retaliated against Seoul through unofficial economic sanctions.
Pyongyang on Sunday triggered global alarm with by far its most powerful nuclear blast to date. It claimed it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb that could be mounted onto a long-range missile.
The North — which in July carried out two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches that apparently brought much of the US mainland into range — has rapidly made progress with its weapons program, in defiance of seven sets of UN sanctions.
ANOTHER LAUNCH
South Korea has detected signs that the North is preparing another missile launch, the defense ministry said Monday, adding it could involve an ICBM.
The ministry said signs that North Korea was “preparing for another ballistic missile launch have consistently been detected since Sunday’s test,” referring to Pyongyang’s sixth nuclear test.
It did not give details, or indicate when a launch might take place.
Sunday’s blast had a strength of 50 kilotons, defense ministry officials told a parliamentary briefing.
“The explosive power of the North’s nuclear test is estimated to be 50 kilotons,” a senior ministry official told lawmakers at an emergency parliamentary briefing.
That would make it five times the size of the North’s previous test in September last year, and more than three times bigger than the US device that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.
The official did not confirm whether the tested device was a hydrogen bomb but said “a variety of nuclear material” appeared to have been used. — AFP
