DISAGREE

1. THAAD can protect us from North Korea’s attack?

  People who agree with THAAD say that we can protect North Korea’s missiles and nuclear strikes protecting by intercepting low height missiles with Patriot (20km~30km), high height missiles with THAAD. But actually, it is hard to prevent them. It is not suitable with Korea security demand of Korea.

THAAD stands for ‘T: terminal, H: High A: Altitude A: Area D: Defense’. ‘terminal high altitude area defense’. When a missile is launched, it undergoes the process of Launch, Boost phase, Midcourse phase, and Terminal phase. And THAAD intercept the an incoming missile at its Terminal phase, the moment after missile its re-entering from space to the atmosphere. THAAD can intercept missiles at a height of 40~150 km (height), and at a maximum velocity of up to maximum 14 Mach(speed). Mach 14. THAAD plan is to intercept North Korea’s ballistic missiles. Ballistic missiles have 3 steps; Boost phase, Midcourse phase, Terminal phase. In Boost phase, missiles continue combustion, and velocity increases, and altitude is climbing getting high. After missile flying a missile flies in Midcourse phase, the increase in velocity stops and its velocity stops increase and derceases decreases gradually, and combustion also stops. At this point THAAD can decide track the final location of the target impact point and fire an intercepting army missile. We can classify the ballistic missiles that can threaten Korea into 3 kinds. First, The first is Short Range Ballistic Missile (SRBM): the height 93~140 km, the range 300~500km. , which It typically includes Scud missiles. Its flight flying height is low compared with THAAD’s intercept section and slow (Mach 4~6) relatively, so THAAD is inefficient in this case. Patriot missiles will do. can substitute enough. Even if THAAD can try to fire intercept missiles to intercept for most part of SRBM flying, THAAD it can’t fire missiles beforehand because of the characteristics of the ballistic missiles. As I mentioned above, characteristic in the preceding explanation; during rocket combustion, its trajectory is not specified. Also, North Korea has over 600 missiles, so and THAAD can’t stop all of them just with 40~48 intercepting missiles in of 1 THAAD unit.  If North Korea shoot SRBM at a low altitude or in up from up in the north, it can avoid THAAD. Second, The second is Medium Range Ballistic Missile (MRBM): the maximum height 300 km, the range 1000~1300 km. , which It typically includes NoDong missiles. Third, The third is Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM): the maximum height 700 km, the maximum range 3500 km. It typically includes Musudan missiles. These missiles can’t target South Korea even if they fire at are fired from the North Korea’s northernmost area. Even if these missiles are could be THAAD’s major targets owing to prediction of No-Dong and Musudan missiles with Mach 10 and 8~11, respectively. mach(10, 8~11 each), the utility of THAAD utility is low if it is has just 1 unit and it is limited to a specific location. situation. In case of Second and Third example, medium longrange ballistic missile have 3 launch ways. We have to take note of LET, which stands for lofted energy trajectory. Recently North Korea raised shot a Musudan missile to the height of 1413 km and dropped it within at the distance of 400 km distance. This created an air of anxiety that medium long-range ballistic missiles can attack South Korea. And the government said says it is the reason for the THAAD placement. But, actually, North Korea do rather does not need to fire No-Dong or Musudan missiles in the way of LET. This is because, flying It is because the flying time of LET is being longer than MET, which stands for minimum energy trajectory. So, accuracy rate of No-Dong or Musudan missiles is becomes low and intercept the possibility of intercepting them increases. If they intend to add load nuclear warheads onto missiles, Scud missiles is are sufficient. Even if North Korea launches them in the way of LET, THAAD has its own limitation in intercepting them. LEF way missiles has make very high angle when it re-entering from space to the atmosphere. So, Terminal phase speed is predicted to be over THAAD’s corresponding speed (Mach 14). If the missile speed is over the THAAD speed, THAAD can’t stop intercept the missile. But, we should not think just for ballistic missile. But ballistic missiles are the only worry to us. North Korea can attack South Korea with conventional and old weapons as much well as ballistic missiles. Especially when they target Seoul, they don’t need to launch No-Dong and Musudan missiles at all. They already deployed over 20,000 missiles with short ranges of 180 km and 70 km missiles, over 20000 shots, have arranged already that can paralyze Seoul. The distance from the capital area to the Military Demarcation Line is just 40 km. Far from Patriot, There are no weapons to protect us in the worlds, which can intercept those short range missiles. to guard us.
Like this, As we discussed above, the utility of THAAD to intercept North Korea missiles is very limited. North Korea missiles that THAAD can intercept is very limited. Although If the US lays a financial burden on Korean government in of the cost of bringing deploying THAAD in Korea, but that its economic cost is will not be superficial. We will have to pay huge cost for selection and purchase of a deployment site, maintenance expenditure, provisions of for the army human resource, etc. So what are the real reasons for THAAD decision for the government to decide to deploy THAAD missiles that are not being suitable to Korea?

* reference http://www.ddanzi.com/ddanziNews/110977258

2. Just for US’s military, political, financial interest and Korea government’s intention

  “The Mutual Defense Treaty Between the Republic of Korea and the United States of America Rule 4 : The Republic of Korea grants, and the United States of America accepts, the right to dispose the US United States land, air and sea forces in and about the territory of the Republic of Korea as determined by mutual agreement.” According to this rule, the US can allocate deploy the US Army’s weapons by their authority. They don’t need a discussion with Korea. In other words, THADD can’t be subject to a parliamentary approval or plebiscite (vote through by national people). The Minister of National Defense didn’t watch THAAD once, review team just visited to watch THAAD once, not even observing have a chance to observe the an intercepting experiment. Even US congress and American weapon experts can’t assure the utility of the THAAD utility.  It means that no one knows exactly about THAAD. The US government made a hasty decision. that They didn’t review the issue enough because their complicated interests were seemed to be involved. First, It the US military interest was involved in the decision involved with US military interest. The biggest reason that China opposes to the THAAD is X-Band Radar installation. The X-band originally has an 360-degree detection angle and 2000 km detection distance range. The US said they will would reduce the angle to 120 and the distance range to 600 km. but However, they can detect monitor China anytime if they make their mind to change their mind the angle and the distance of through THAAD in Korea. US Forces’ Forces Korea Commander also said that next stage after following THAAD is MD system the MD  (missile defense) system. (against Russia and China) combine and interoperability. The US have a central center computer (C2BM) for MD system which collects missile information from all over the world, and they can add MD system in Korea. Second, It the decision also involves US political and financial interest. Recently, THAAD have has influence in on the US presidential election. Obama who were was a THAAD critics critic also changed his mind signing a guide that and planned to allocate 7 THAAD units in various places on of the world. Because so-called ‘North Wide Wind’ (北北; North Korea’s unexpected action provocation before elections) became also an important issue in the US presidential election also. The US changed its interest concern from GBI (ground-launched intercept system) ‘business’ (ground-launched intercept system) to THAAD ‘business’ after they failed to develop GBI and had difficulty about the inflow of funds. Lockheed Martion Martin (an American weapon company) presented asserted that they partly succeeded in THAAD intercept test partly early this year, and all presidential candidates started to agree with the utility of THAAD. Candidates can preserve national defense expenditure at the time when the budget of the MD system is in danger. They also can won win popularity by emphasizing that the local society societies will increase benefit if they invest funding to in the huge
defense industry, wide-spreading in over 50 states in of the US. All of that matched with the attitude that Korea Government deals with North Korea currently. Many people said that the present state of the relationship between North and South Korea went back to the Kim ill Sung period. In the situation of expanded expanding arms race, People’s anxiety makes them became become the supporters of THAAD.

3. Economy problem with China Our biggest trade partner is China.

  Trade with China is takes up about 25 percent, and this figure is more than the sum of the trade with the US and Japan. As of 2015, China occupied 45 percent of tourists visiting Korea visiting tourist. Over 40 percent of a current account surplus occurred in the trade with China. china trade. China is communist country so they can always put financial economic pressure on Korea nationally. When ‘Korea-China garlic dispute’ happened in 2000, Askorea Korea was trying tried to increase the import tax on some of China Chinese garlic for home farmers. But China announced the temporary cessation of importing Korean cell-phones and polyethylene import. Finally, Korea gave up garlic tax. 2016 now, with, Now, in 2016, with THAAD being a more severe problem, China starts to control the tourist travelers to Korea and stop flow the inflow of Korean wave gradually. Korean companies that extended their business to China concern about slump in stocks. We have to plan a diplomatic policy thinking realistically reflecting such reality.

AGREE

  Against North Korea’ provocations with nuclear weapons, deployment of THAAD can play an ideal role of a brake gear for the peace of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, deploying THAAD is advantageous not only for the safety for of South Korea own, but also for the strengthened alliance with the United States. Therefore, South Korea can put a pressure on both China and Russia whose sanctions for nuclear weapons of North Korea is are passive. So many Koreans are worried about the deployment of THAAD. From the radiation problem with THAAD to the location problem with ‘Seong-ju’, a county for the deployment of THAAD, every issue of THAAD is a hot potato. Regarding radiation and noise problems, the previous example in Japan helps. Japan presently deploys two THAAD units in its land. One located in the southern part of Japan (Kyoto) keeps an eye on the Korean peninsula and another located in  the eastern part of Japan (Aomori) monitors North Korea. Here are some results of from the Kyoto council concerning the health effect influenced by THAAD. According to  surveys about the noise level from TYP-2 radar consisted of THAAD, the level of noise level is known to be 53~54 dB at most. This noise level is equivalent with the noise generated in a quiet office, so there are no more worries about the noise problem. On top of that, Sato Doru, a professor of Kyoto University who was an advisor for the deployment of THAAD in Kyoto in 2013 said, that “After the discussion with experts in from every related field, we know that radiation from radar is far less influential than that of mobile phones to the human body,” He revealed that the radar for weather forecast, which had the same performance property with THAAD radar, had been used over 30 years, but there was nothing harmful for the human body. Experts concluded that the deployment of THAAD for national safety will do no harm to the people living near the units. In addition, the U.S military demonstrated safety of THAAD by measuring the radiation level at the US base in Guam. resulting that The measured level was 0.0007 watt from the distance of 1.6 km, so it is surely ignorable. When THAAD is actually deployed, it is required to cut
out all trees that exist within in a 600-meter radius for securement of clear view. To measure electromagnetic waves in the radius, the height of the lowest part of beams is should be more than 50 meters high from the ground. Therefore, it is possible that a creature which flies to the sky can affect electromagnetic waves. but People, animals living on the ground and even farm products are unable to be exposed to electromagnetic waves. Of course, birds also have little effect on the THAAD radar because they spend little time on in flying. If a base for THAAD is located in hills or mountains at a high altitude neighboring people will gain stronger safety from the electromagnetic waves. Korea already deployed 2 Super Green Pine radars, imported from Israel. Although they radiate the higher level of electromagnetic waves, neighboring residents haven’t demonstrated against them. When North Korean missiles head to the Korean peninsula, THAAD can strengthen present our security defense system consisting of Patriot and Chun-Goong missiles because it can intercept North Korean missiles in at a higher altitude.  They China and Russia claim that the US and South Korean will monitor their military movements situation of them because the measurement range of THAAD contains several parts of their countries. Especially, China warned that ignoring its opinion would be very lethal for the Korean economy and entertainment industry. However, the deployment of THAAD in South Korea can put  pressure to both on China and Russia to be more determined to denuclearize North Korea.  Additionally, China has owned a radar fence which monitors every part of the Korean peninsula without being noticed or asking permission from Korea since 2011. People should notice that the faster North Korea is denuclearized, the faster the peaceful unification of North and South Korea comes.Seong-ju county is known to be the best place for THAAD deployment But, now,  the confliction between the government and the residents of Seong-ju is in acute tension. Protests against THAAD have been extended to Washington D.C. where so many Koreans live. Yet, the deployment of THAAD is the best decision to strengthen alliance with the U.S and put pressure on China and Russia to denuclearize North Korea, and finally accomplish the peaceful unification of the Korean peninsula. 

by Chea-Hyun Kim, CP Reporter / Yu-Jin Jung , CUB Repoter