Eight lawmakers from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) landed in China this week to meet China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, and other top officials to convey their belief that the decision to deploy THAAD should be left to the next president.
Their visit, which came even as the South Korean defence minister, Han Min-koo, reiterated Seoul’s commitment to THAAD, has fuelled speculation that the deployment of the system is not yet a done deal. The DPK’s Moon Jae-in, who is the favourite in this year’s presidential election, has already suggested rethinking the deployment.
China is concerned that even thought a THAAD system on South Korean soil would not be able to intercept Chinese missiles, its X-band radar surveillance system would be able to monitor missile tests on its northern and eastern coasts. [...]
On December 22, the Constitutional Court of Korea began a six-month-long hearing to decide whether to accept or reject Park’s impeachment. A presidential election, previously scheduled for the end of 2017, could be brought forward if the court upholds the impeachment vote. Even disregarding that vote, Park’s prospects look dimmer by the day – already she has been abandoned by 29 of the lawmakers in her ruling Saenuri party, which had previously held 128 of the 300 seats in parliament.
Any successor to Park would be “very likely” to delay the deployment of Thaad, said Zhang.
The DPK’s Moon, who lost the last presidential election to Park by 3 percentage points, has already added uncertainty to the THAAD debate by saying the next administration should reconsider the deployment.
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