An advanced U.S. missile defense system will be deployed in a rural farming town in southeastern South Korea, Seoul officials announced Wednesday, angering not only North Korea and China but also local residents who fear potential health hazards that they believe the U.S. system might cause.
(FOX)- As words of the location for the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, spread even before the government’s formal announcement, thousands of residents in the town of Seongju, the site for the U.S. system, rallied and demanded the government cancel its decision. A group of local leaders wrote letters of complaint in blood that they plan to give to the Defense Ministry.
“We oppose with our lives the THAAD deployment,” one of the letters said, according to Seongju local council speaker Bae Jae Man, one of the 10 people who wrote the letter.
Seoul and Washington officials say they need the missile system to better deal with what they call increasing North Korean military threats. On Monday, North Korea warned it will take unspecified “physical” measures once the location for THAAD is announced.
Seoul’s Deputy Defense Minister Ryu Je Seung told a news conference that Seongju was picked because it can maximize the THAAD’s military effectiveness while satisfying environmental, health and safety standards.