North Korea launched another ballistic missile earlier today, the latest in a series that all defy United Nations Security Council resolutions. The missile landed in the sea off North Korea's east coast, and comes as South Korean and American officials discuss upgrades to anti-ballistic defense systems. More from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.
Last month, when South Korea and the US agreed to deploy THAAD (Terminal high altitude area defense system)...the decision infuriated North Korea, China, Russia and the melon farmers of Seong-ju. The rural area 135 miles southeast of Seoul was chosen as the base fir the new anti-missile system, which includes a powerful radar to detect missiles as they launch...the farmers worry that the electro-magnetic waves could threaten their health and their crops. When Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-anh visited to tell them their fears were groundless, he was forced to retreat under the umbrellas of his bodyguards beneath a rain of eggs and water bottles thrown by protesters.
Yesterday, on a visit to South Korea, Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning said that the US had allowed a group of South Korean reporters to visit the THAAD battery in Guam to check the electromagnetic waves for themselves. Even so, protests continue.
While THAAD would protect much of South Korea, that does not include Seoul. The capital and its ten million people are defended by short range Patriot missile batteries and, yesterday, Secretary Fanning and General Vincent Brooks, the Commander of US Forces in Korea, discussed an upgrade to the latest PAC -3 missiles and according to the Yonhap news agency, an upgrade to South Korea's navy to deploy the Standard 3 Missile that's already part of the anti-ballistic missile defense systems on the latest US Navy destroyers.
