Lawmakers round on THAAD decision

the center-right People’s Party are having a close race in presidential polls.

Regional countries, including China and Russia, have strongly opposed the THAAD deployment as it breaks the regional strategic balance and damages security interests of the two countries.

To resolve the THAAD issue, the main panelist proposed to the next ROK government taking the lead in talking the DPRK into freezing its nuclear and missile developments first. Then, Seoul can discuss a gradual lifting of sanctions on Pyongyang with China and the US to achieve the ultimate goal of the denuclearization on the peninsula.

Cheong Seong-chang, director of unification strategy studies program at the private Sejong Institute, depicted the approach as the re-internalization of the Korean Peninsula issues in which two neighbors take the initiative to resolve the peninsula’s nuclear issue.

Cheong recommended the next ROK president hold summit talks with top DPRK leader Kim Jong-un to agree on the immediate stop of Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests in exchange for the resumption of the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the DPRK’s border town as well as the restart of tours to the DPRK’s Mount Kumgang resort.

If the agreement is reached, China and the US can agree on the partial lifting of sanctions on the DPRK. In that case, there would be no need to deploy THAAD in ROK soil.