08 August 2016•Update: 08 August 2016
By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
South Korean President Park Geun-hye called on local lawmakers Monday to cooperate on national security rather than “aggravating internal problems”, as six members of the main opposition Minjoo Party ignored the government’s advice to cancel a controversial trip to China.
The lawmakers’ three-day visit has aggravated a political rift over how best to respond to Beijing’s criticism of Seoul’s plan to deploy the United States’ THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) anti-missile system in South Korea by the end of next year.
Over the weekend, Seoul’s presidential office dismissed Chinese state-run media comments as “unreasonable” -- one such story claimed last week that in case of a clash with the U.S., South Korea would be the “first military target”.
The South’s position is that THAAD is a response to North Korea’s continuing development of nuclear weapons, and that Beijing should concern itself with Pyongyang’s aggression.
Instead, China appears to be viewing the U.S. with suspicion and has visibly made efforts to bolster relations with the North since Seoul and Washington made their THAAD announcement last month.
During a meeting with senior secretaries Monday, Park was quoted by local news agency Yonhap accusing the traveling Minjoo members of “sympathizing with China’s stance”.
Lawmaker Kim Young-ho, the head of the group, said before leaving that they were only trying to “contribute even a little to improving chilled diplomatic relations between South Korea and China” -- their agenda revolves around a series of meetings with Chinese security experts.
Standing behind Kim as he addressed reporters at Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport was a protester holding a banner ordering China and Russia not to “interfere” -- and echoing Seoul’s sentiment that Beijing would be better off focusing on restraining North Korea than opposing THAAD.
