The Sydney Morning Herald reports that relations between South Korea and China are strained after Lotte agreed to provide a site for an American THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea's Jeju Province.
Beijing has issued two "solemn representations" to Seoul over the impending deployment, and the People's Daily, a Communist party mouthpiece, said in an editorial that Beijing could potentially sever diplomatic ties.
On Tuesday, after months of negotiations, South Korean retail giant Lotte Group reached a deal to swap land at its Lotte Skyhill Country Club - a lush, mountainous resort in on the southern side of Jeju Island - for a military-owned parcel on the outskirts of Seoul, making way for the missile shield to be placed on the country club site.
That same day, Chinese authorities fined one of Lotte's Beijing supermarkets $US6500 for displaying a "false advertisement" - a vanishingly rare charge in the city, according to the state-run Legal Daily.
South Korean musicians, cosmetics, and television productions have also been subjected to adverse actions by the Chinese government, the article says.
A statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry after a meeting with the Assistant Foreign Minister of China said
Both parties emphasised that collective political and diplomatic efforts should be stepped up to ease tensions and initiate the process of military and political detente across the board in Northeast Asia, in order to create conditions conducive to resolving the nuclear issue, as well as other issues, on the Korean Peninsula.
Submitter's comment: I'm puzzled by the choice of a site to the south of the Korean peninsula.
Additional coverage:
- Stars and Stripes
- Xinhua (Chinese government news service)
- RT (supported by Russian government)
- Value Walk
- Reuters
- CNN
- The Korea Herald
- UPI
- Sputnik (supported by Russian government)
further information:
golfshot.com entry for Lotte Sky Hill Jeju Country Club
previous stories:
- South Korea to Receive U.S. Anti-Missile Interceptor System
- G20 Summit Roundup
- Lotte Group Vice Chairman, Facing Corruption Probe, Found Dead in Apparent Suicide
Related Stories
The United States and South Korea issued a joint statement saying that the United States is to place a THAAD (Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense) anti-missile system in South Korea. The system uses radar to identify approaching missiles, against which interceptor missiles can be fired. It would be under control of the United States military. According to the statement, the system
will be focused solely on North Korean nuclear and missile threats and would not be directed towards any third party nations.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that it "expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition" and called for a "stop" to the deployment.
coverage:
- CCTV (Chinese government source)
- Xinhua (Chinese government source; story from February)
- Xinhua (story from 29 June)
- Kores Times
- Reuters (story from 29 June)
- Los Angeles Times
- Washington Post
- BBC
- Reuters
- New York Times
A Vice Chairman at a large South Korean conglomerate ("chaebol") has died in an apparent suicide:
A senior executive of South Korea's Lotte Group has died, an official at the country's fifth-largest family-run conglomerate told Reuters on Friday, amid a sweeping criminal probe into the business. The official, who declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said a police investigation into the death of Lee In-won, a Lotte Group Vice Chairman, was underway. He did not elaborate. Yonhap News Agency [...] [adds] that a suicide note was found in the executive's car.
Also at Bloomberg. So what's happening over at Lotte? Alleged tax evasion:
Prosecutors raided additional offices of Lotte Group's policy headquarters Thursday [August 4th] in order to gain evidence regarding alleged tax evasion by group founder Shin Kyuk-ho, officials said Friday. Shin is now suspected of evading roughly 600 billion won ($540 million) of gift taxes while transferring assets to his common-law wife Seo Mi-kyung and their daughter Shin Yoo-mi.
[Continues...]
Obama Cancels Meeting with Philippine President Duterte
President Obama has cancelled a planned meeting with Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte after Duterte described Obama as a "son of a bitch" in comments made to reporters. Obama will instead meet with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, presumably to discuss North Korea's latest missile tests. Here is our previous article about Duterte.
G20 Summit in China: U.S.-China Tensions, North Korea, and Low-Cost Steel
The Group of 20 summit is now underway in Hangzhou, China. Before the summit even began, tensions between the U.S. and China were reflected by shouting matches between Chinese and American officials on the tarmac and at the West Lake State House where President Obama and President Xi Jinping met. Security guards also attempted to prevent foreign media from covering Obama's departure from Air Force One, and in a departure from protocol, no rolling staircase was provided for the President. When questioned about the incidents the next day, President Obama said that Americans "don't leave our values and ideals behind when we take these trips" but dismissed the incidents:
[Continues...]
U.S. Begins Installing Missile Defense System in South Korea
The U.S. has begun the installation of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles system:
The US military has started installing a controversial missile defence system at a site in South Korea, amid high tensions over neighbouring North Korea's nuclear and missile ambitions. The Thaad system is designed to protect against threats from North Korea.
Hundreds of local residents protested against the deployment, as vehicles carrying equipment arrived at the site in the south of the country. China argues Thaad will destabilise security in the region. The US has in recent days deployed warships and a submarine to the Korean peninsula, amid fears North Korea could be planning further missile or nuclear tests.
Admiral Harry Harris said that the THAAD system would bring Kim Jong-un "to his senses, not to his knees".
FireEye recently claimed that China is attempting to hack South Korean targets to delay the deployment of THAAD.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 04 2017, @09:50AM (2 children)
The added travel time is not a lot compared to target acquisition and launch time, and it was likely considered that a more distant launch site would be both less aggressive as well as more likely to survive any first strike attempts from North Korea or Terrestrial China (obviously subs with cruise missiles are still a threat, but not in sufficient quantities to destroy the entire facility.)
Additionally a longer travel time means more time for manuevering or if necessary an abort code to keep the missiles from border crossing and causing a potential conflict with NK/CN
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 04 2017, @06:00PM (1 child)
Yes, thaad is ballistic missile defense. For those who don't know, a ballistic missile is one that goes up and then "falls" back to earth versus a missile that is powered for its entire flight. It doesn't help to be close to the launch site when defending against ballistic missiles because you hit them on the way down (when their course is determined by gravity and thus reasonably easy to predict).
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Saturday March 04 2017, @09:47PM
Quite incorrect.
Hitting the missile on the way up is much easier, because it's not going to take wild evasive maneuvers, is pretty soft, and needs to stay intact. The hard part is to catch up with it fast, requiring being close.
On the way down, a long-range ballistic missile is always hypersonic, and launches a dozen independent heads and decoys, each of which are designed to take unpredictable paths to avoid interception, while being spread hundreds of kilometers apart.
The second reason to want anti-ballistic defense close to China is the famous "carrier killers", ballistic medium-range toys which rightfully scare the beejezus out of the guys sailing a giant target near unfriendly waters. Carriers have their strike group to do the ABM job, but multi-layer protection gives better odds.
(Score: 2) by SacredSalt on Saturday March 04 2017, @11:29AM (1 child)
...and they actively fund groups in S. Korea to this effect (similar to our own domestic unrest at moment that is largely funded and organized far from where it happens). The reality is a great number of people in Korea appreciate that an external attack is the most likely event to lead to a forced showdown with N. Korea. North Korea is not exactly cute fuzzy wuzzy puppies and kittens (unless they are eating them). If the VX poisoning of Un's brother didn't convince you, maybe the automation of thousands of upgraded SA-2 missile launchers will.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday March 05 2017, @03:22AM
I'm sure the CCP would like you to believe this ...and they actively fund groups in S. Korea to this effect (similar to our own domestic unrest [...]
The ideas I was trying to convey were:
1. the THAAD plan is progressing: a site has been arranged
2. the site is on an island to the south of the Korean peninsula
3. the Chinese and Russian governments reiterated their opposition to THAAD
4. the Chinese government has been taking actions against South Korean travellers and businesses
5. those actions are said to be connected to China's opposition to THAAD
I don't think you mean that the Chinese secretly favour THAAD; nor do you seem to be disputing the connection between that and the denied visas etc. You seem to be commenting about something else. Care to clarify?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 04 2017, @03:38PM (2 children)
This might be about protecting Japan from China. The USA is involved in protecting both, so missiles in one to protect the other is reasonable.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday March 05 2017, @04:28AM (1 child)
You're probably right. The story calls the THAAD plans "a long-envisioned response to North Korea's repeated missile tests and threats to attack South Korea, Japan and the United States." As you say, the Jeju site does look well-placed to protect Japan from North Korean missiles.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05 2017, @05:07AM
Well, maybe a little bit, but mostly China. This is why China is annoyed. They might even actually know due to spying.
We'd want to protect Japan and our aircraft carriers. Perhaps there is some protection for South Korea being attacked by somebody, but not likely much. This isn't about them, at least not mostly.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Tuesday March 07 2017, @08:47AM
I just looked at two other articles about the Lotte site:
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170227001006 [koreaherald.com]
http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/news/news_Po_detail.htm?No=125628 [kbs.co.kr]
They both say that the golf course is in Seongju County; one says that that is in North Gyeongsang Province. I think the Sydney Morning Herald may be in error.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Gyeongsang_Province [wikipedia.org]