China and Russia have condemned the plan announced by Washington and Seoul to deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense system in South Korea in response to North Korea's repeated ballistic missile and nuclear weapons tests, charging that deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system would harm security in Northeast Asia. While deployment of the system — designed to intercept ballistic missiles while they are still at a high altitude — is supposedly aimed at countering Pyongyang's nuclear and missile threats, Beijing and Moscow argue that it would pose a threat to their own national security.
Instead of ratcheting up tensions over the missile defense system, countries with a stake in the region should focus on efforts to contain North Korea's nuclear and missile programs — a common source of concern for regional security. They need to realize that a schism over deployment of the THAAD system will only benefit North Korea in its attempt to drive a wedge in the international regime of sanctions imposed on the reclusive state over its missile and nuclear tests.
Last week, North Korea fired three short- and medium-range ballistic missiles — two of them reportedly flying 500 to 600 km before falling into the Sea of Japan — in what is believed intended as a show of force in defiance of the plan unveiled earlier this month for deployment of the THAAD system at a military base in the southern South Korean town of Seongju, as well as an attempt to fuel the divide between the United States and South Korea on one hand and China and Russia on the other over the missile defense system. Japan has expressed its support of the THAAD deployment in South Korea.
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