Interview: Russian expert says THAAD deployment in S. Korea to raise regional tension

The deployment of an advanced U.S. missile system in South Korea in the wake of the launch of a satellite by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) earlier this month could raise tension in the region, a Russian expert warned Thursday.

The deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) "will lead to a dangerous increase in tension between the United States and a number of Northeast Asian nations," Yevgeni Kim told Xinhua in an interview.

Kim, a senior researcher at the Center for Korean Studies of Russian Academy of Sciences, said the move is aimed at Russia and China, rather than at the DPRK as it claimed.

Washington and Seoul started earlier this month to negotiate the deployment of THAAD to South Korea in response to the launch of a satellite by the DPRK.

The launch, which took place about a month after Pyongyang claimed it had successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb, raised serious concerns around the world as many considered it was a test of a ballistic missile that could be used to launch a nuclear weapon.

Kim said that though the United States cited DPRK' move as a pretext for deploying THAAD, it is the DPRK's two bigger neighbors that THAAD is targeted.

The THAAD system was designed to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles at an altitude of over 50 km, but if the DPRK wanted to use nuclear weapons against South Korea, it would use rockets that fly at much lower altitudes, Kim said.

"The deployment of the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea is not directed against the DPRK. DPRK's nuclear activity is just an excuse," Kim said.

Kim recalled the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 1972, which for a number of years contained the development of new missile defense systems.

However the treaty was terminated as the United States withdrew in 2002.

"Now the United States is talking more and more about new missile defense areas and about the need for a global missile defense system," Kim said.

He also noted that the United States had not abandoned its plan to deploy missile systems in Europe even after the alleged Iranian missile threat, which the systems are said to counter, was gone.

"Now they are applying the same pattern for the Korean peninsula," he said.

Kim suggested that the deployment of the THAAD system in South Korea is aimed at intercepting Russian and Chinese ballistic missiles that could be launched in retaliation against a possible U.S. nuclear strike.

"It is a step that undermines the global balance of power, and the existing security system in Northeast Asia," Kim said. Endi