Park Defends Her Position on THAAD
In her speech during the 71st-anniversary celebration of South Korea's Liberation Day on Monday, South Korea President Park Geun-Hye defended her stand to deploy a U.S.-operated missile defense system claiming that the action would protect the Korean people.
Speaking in front of thousands of people that include ruling and opposition lawmakers and relatives of fighters against Japan's colonial rule of Korea at the Sejong Center for Performing Arts in Seoul, the President said that the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system was a "measure of self-defense" against North Korea's "reckless provocations."
Korea JoongAng Daily reported that Park's words seemed to criticize the stand of China against a THAAD battery in South Korea. China also claims that the move of the government is too extreme fo the needs of South Korea's missile defense.
In her fourth Liberation Day speech as the head of the country, Park said, "I believe that the matter [of THAAD] is related to the lives of the people and should not be a subject of partisan bickering."
She also had some words for the critics within the country who claim that the deployment will damage the country's relations with China, which is a crucial economic partner that imported over 25 percent of the country's total exports in 2015. Park stated, "If the critics have any other alternatives to protect the nation and its people, then they must present it before us."
Since last month, China has been very local on its opposition to the THAAD deployment in South Korea saying that the system is designed in order for the United States to monitor China's airspace and its advanced radar system, which was later denied by the two ally countries. Park also urged North Korea to put an "immediate halt" to its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction such as a nuclear arsenal.
She said, "Any attempt to threaten the Republic of Korea and its people will not succeed. Making such an attempt will only aggravate its economic hardship and further isolate it from the international community."
Park then said that she hoped that South Korea and Japan build a "future-oriented" relation while "facing history objectively."
