THAAD in South Korea

Rimasta

Member
There seems to be a growing dispute between China and South Korea over the potential deployment of THAAD anti-missile systems to the Peninsula. Does China have a leg to stand on, as it places air defense assets in the SCS, a place that China regards as its own sovereign territory? Doesn't South Korea have the right to provide for its defense as it sees fit?

I can understand that China doesn't want a powerful radar system so close to the Yalu, but I feel that China should do more then to reign in its "Ally" North Korea. If anything, the actions of North Korea will only guarantee the strength of the US-ROK Alliance and guarantee strategic defenses are found on the Peninsula.

I am curious what are the views/opinions of members here on this issue.
 

Toblerone

Banned Member
The simple fact that after all these years China still hasn't installed a puppet regime in N.Korea baffles me. I guess they considered N.Korea useful as a buffer?

It has gotten to a point where China now has a totally unstable geopolitical actor on its borders. And it's armed with nuclear bombs of some description.

But the main problem is that at some point N.Korea will implode and there will be a S.Korea intervention, along with a huge USA task force and a parade of useful idiots to give the whole affair an air of "international cooperation". And then China will have no partner in the country, so it will be hard to keep a strong unified Korea from being created on its border.

I am not impressed by N.Korea's militaristic fascination. Everyone there has been conditioned to follow orders or be liquidated, that is the perfect country to stage a military coup in. Have a team of officers kill the dictator and announce on national TV what the new order of things are. Unless they tried already, failed and their collaborators were executed. :cool:

Putting N.Korea under your protection while immediately scrapping all nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs should ... stand. Then you can turn the country into a chinese sweatshop that would make even Taiwan blush.
 

Blackshoe

Defense Professional
Verified Defense Pro
There seems to be a growing dispute between China and South Korea over the potential deployment of THAAD anti-missile systems to the Peninsula. Does China have a leg to stand on, as it places air defense assets in the SCS, a place that China regards as its own sovereign territory? Doesn't South Korea have the right to provide for its defense as it sees fit?
Having legs to stand on doesn't matter that much; see the old phrase about consistency being the hobgoblin of small minds.

It's more important to set up a precedent of speaking out against movements like putting in THAAD in the ROK.

I can understand that China doesn't want a powerful radar system so close to the Yalu, but I feel that China should do more then to reign in its "Ally" North Korea. If anything, the actions of North Korea will only guarantee the strength of the US-ROK Alliance and guarantee strategic defenses are found on the Peninsula.

I am curious what are the views/opinions of members here on this issue.
The Chinese-DPRK alliance is more spoken of than extant. I'm not even sure how much leverage they still have over the DPRK, and especially KJU.

Regardless, at the end of the day, stability is China's only requirement out of the DPRK in the form of preventing a wave of refugees sweeping into Dalian Province, and they've been granted that (in fact security along the northern border has gotten better recently).

I've always thought the easiest thing for China to do if they wanted was sponsor a coup and have a Romania situation ("meet the new gov, same as the old, just different faces"). But there's still risk in them doing that if they are even still able (supposedly, many of Jang Song Thaek's people who were purged with him were of the pro-China relations camp, in as much as such a thing occurs).
 

Ranger25

Active Member
Staff member
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