Strategic misjudgment for Seoul to alienate Beijing and Moscow

THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA is making a historic misjudgment deploying the US' Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system on its soil. Xinhua News Agency commented:

The decision to deploy the anti-missile system will bring catastrophe to the Korean Peninsula and destroy the hard-won political mutual trust and economic ties between the ROK and its neighbors in Northeast Asia.

Trying to defend the decision to install the THAAD system in Seongju county, southeast of Seoul, a ROK government spokesman on Sunday called China's criticism unreasonable and said it was a response to the "nuclear and missile threats" from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.