South Korea and China can maintain a future-oriented, “win-win” relationship despite tensions arising from the potential deployment here of an advanced U.S. missile defense system, Seoul’s ambassador in Beijing said Thursday.
“The South Korea-China strategic partnership has already entered a mature phase in various areas, including politics, business, culture and humanities exchanges,” Amb. Kim Jang-soo said during a luncheon meeting with Korean diplomats and local businessmen.
Kim was here to attend an annual gathering of the country’s top diplomats in charge of overseas missions.
Relations between the two neighbors have become strained in recent months as Seoul and Washington moved to study the feasibility of stationing a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery on the Korean Peninsula to better cope with Pyongyang’s evolving nuclear and missile threats.
The allies have stressed the defensive nature of THAAD, a core asset of the U.S.’ global multilayered missile defense program, arguing that THAAD, if deployed, would only target the North.
But Beijing and Moscow have categorically opposed it, arguing that THAAD, particularly its long-range radar system, would undermine their security interests. The AN/TPY-2 radar has a detection range of some 1,800 kilometers.
Touching on China’s slowing economy and structural reform as potential challenges to the South Korean economy, the envoy vowed to thoroughly analyze their impacts to better support South Korean firms operating in China. (Yonhap)
