Says an official of the South Korean Presidential Office
The Chinese government has recently asked the South Korean government for a permission to inspect the THAAD (terminal high altitude area defense) installations of the United States deployed in the Seongju area 296 kilometers southeast of Seoul. This was reported by a leading Korean-language daily, Chosun Ilbo, this morning.
The Chinese government has been bringing increasingly heavy pressure on the South Korean government as well as on the Korean businesses in China in an effort to re-think the deployment of the US THAAD batteries in Korea. China contends that the THAAD batteries are deployed in South Korea to see what’s going on in China.
An official at the Presidential Mansion in Seoul told reporters, “Chinese officials want to directly confirm if the THAAD radars in South Korea really detect things which are happening in China.” He said, “China is exploring the possibility of doing that through various other channels in addition to those to South Korea.”