SEOUL, August 4. /TASS/. China’s concern over the recent decision by South Korea and the United States to place an advanced missile defense system on Korean soil in 2017 is groundless, a government official told Yonhap news agency on Thursday.
Chinese state-run newspaper People’s Daily published an editorial on Wednesday claiming that "the planned deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system poses a serious threat to China's strategic security interest and that Beijing would not sit on its hands at such a development."
"It is regrettable to see People's Daily make such a unilateral argument that THAAD would hurt the strategic balance in the region and China's security interests," a South Korean government official said on condition of anonymity. "Rather than taking an unreasonable issue with the THAAD deployment, it should send a strong warning message to the North bent on developing nuclear weapons and missiles in defiance of South Korea, China and the international community," the official added.
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The decision to deploy the THAAD in the south of the Korean Peninsula was made at the beginning of July. The ground-based missile defense system is designed to intercept the warheads of ballistic missiles at the end of the mid-course phase and during the approach to the target, and also to protect cities and key facilities from ballistic missiles - both short-range and strategic ones.
A nuclear missile threat from North Korea was named as the reason for stationing a THAAD unit on the permanent basis. Russia and China are strongly against these plans.