June 11, 2017

"South Korean President Moon Jae-in has decided to suspend the additional deployment of the US anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, citing the need for an environmental impact assessment (EIA). This decision was made days after the country's Defense Ministry intentionally omitted details of the THAAD installment from its reports to him. Moon's decision will prolong the entire process of THAAD's deployment, and as a result the US is now suspicious of the defense system's future.

Moon's office said in an interview Wednesday that the entire THAAD battery would occupy 700,000 square meters and that the site will be subject to an environmental review. The country's Environmental Impact Assessment Act stipulated that construction sites over 330,000 square meters must go through a full-scale EIA, and only a small-scale assessment is required for a site less than 330,000 square meters. To speed up THAAD's deployment, South Korea's Defense Ministry intentionally divided the battery's construction site into two parts, with the first allocated to occupy 328,970 square meters, deliberately designing the site into an upside-down U-shape trying to confuse the area for military facilities with that of THAAD in an attempt to skip the EIA."

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