South Korea presidential hopeful: U.S. missile defence should wait
Source: Reuters
Thu Dec 15, 2016 8:21am GMT
By Christine Kim and James Pearson SEOUL
The former leader of South Korea's main opposition party, who is leading polls of candidates to be the next president, said on Thursday deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system that has antagonised China should be decided by the next administration.
Moon Jae-in, 63, who lost the last presidential election to Park Geun-hye by 3 percentage points, confirmed he would run in the next election, which is scheduled for the end of 2017 but could be much sooner if a Constitutional Court upholds an impeachment vote against Park and she has to leave office.
South Korea and the United States agreed this year to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system in response to North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
But China vehemently opposes the system's deployment in South Korea, fearing its radar would be able to penetrate its territory. Russia also opposes it.
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-southkorea-politics-idUKKBN1440GA?rpc=401&