U.S. President Donald Trump meets with South Korean President Moon Jae-In at the Blue House in Seoul on Nov. 7. / AP
South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Wha, in a bow to China, has said Seoul will not seek any more deployments of the U.S. THAAD missile defense system.
Kang also assured that the South will not join the U.S. missile defense networks nor seek a trilateral alliance involving Japan, Yonhap reported on Nov. 10.
Conservative strategists have long regarded a strong U.S.-Japan-South Korean alliance as critical to checking the military ambitions of communist allies China and North Korea.
“Both sides shared the view that the strengthening of exchange and cooperation between Korea and China serves their common interests and agreed to expeditiously bring exchange and cooperation in all areas back on a normal development track,” Seoul’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The so-called “three-no principle” drew mixed responses in South Korea, with some observers saying it was a realistic decision to move Seoul-Beijing ties forward, while others said it was nothing more than a “humiliating” statement to curry favor with Beijing over Seoul’s sovereign rights, the Yonhap report said.
South Korean President Moon is scheduled to hold a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Vietnam this weekend on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting.
Full article: In blow to U.S. alliance, South Korea’s foreign minister assures China on THAAD, Japan ties (World Tribune)
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