Feature: S. Korean residents voice against THAAD depolyment

Scores of residents living in the southeastern part of South Korea, where a U.S. missile shield is supposed to be deployed by the end of next year, came to Seoul on Saturday to voice their opposition.

Seoul and Washington agreed in July to install a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in Seongju county in North Gyeongsang province.

The site was changed later into a golf course, north of the county, and became closer to Gimcheon city.

About 50 Gimcheon residents rallied on the streets in the Gwanghwamun Square, just over a km away from the presidential Blue House where President Park's office and residence are located. They protested against the THAAD deployment, trying to make people more informed of the irrational decision.

"It was a bolt from the blue sky," said Park Byung-ju, a 62-year-old resident in Gimcheon.

"Farmers face difficulties in making a living, and apartment prices turn downward," said Park, who came here with his wife.

One THAAD battery is composed of six mobile launchers, 48 interceptors, X-band radar and fire & control unit.

The radar especially troubled villagers as the radar-emitting super microwave is detrimental to farm produces and human body.

The radar, which will be placed at the golf course in the far northern Seongju county, affects apartments and key produces in the southern part of Gimcheon. The city accounts for some 40 percent of the nation's plum farming.

"Who is going to buy plum from Gimcheon? As apartment prices in Gimcheon tumbled, people are unable to move to other cities," said the resident, to whom Gimcheon is his native home.

The Gimcheon citizen said he believes that the United States pressured South Korea into deploying the anti-missile system, which he described as useless and not working. It was part of the U.S. strategy to contain China, he said.

The U.S. missile defense ambition has long been cast into doubt since its Patriot interceptors shot down little missile during the Gulf War in early 1990s. THAAD, manufactured by U.S.-based Lockheed Martin company, has yet to prove its capability to intercept missiles from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

DPRK missiles targeting South Korea would fly at a much lower altitude that THAAD interceptors cannot approach effectively.

The U.S. missile shield in southeastern South Korea is incapable of defending the capital Seoul from possible DPRK attacks.

Public sentiment spread here that the THAAD installation is a U.S. strategy in Northeast Asia to take South Korea as a cog together with Japan. The X-band radar can peer into Chinese and Russian territories, causing strong opposition from the two countries.

Following the global financial crisis, the U.S. fiscal deficit widened further, forcing it to reduce defense budget. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who dreams of the militaristic Japan by revising its pacifist constitution, is willing to fill the U.S. budget gap in Northeast Asia.

Washington is suspected of pressuring Seoul into reaching a "final and irreversible" agreement with Tokyo last December on the Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops before and during the Pacific War. The victims are euphemistically called "comfort women."

The hurried signing in November of a pact between Seoul and Tokyo on the direct exchange of military intelligence on the DPRK's nuclear and missile seemingly stemmed from the U.S. pressure.

Another Gimcheon resident, who asked to be identified only by his surname Chung, said the THAAD deployment is a U.S. strategy to contain China and not targeting the DPRK missiles. Enditem