In one of those diplomatic face-saving moves, South Korea announced today that it will "temporarily" agree to deployment of four more US missile defense launch platforms. The missile defense systems were delayed due to "environmental" concerns just a few months ago. The USA had agreed with the previous president of South Korea to the installation of six of these launch platforms. Two were put in place and the other four were delivered to Korea and were being installed when the new president took office in Seoul. That new president immediately stopped the installation on the pretext of an environmental review. Actually, the new president wanted to try to start talking to Kim Jung Un of North Korea, and he used the missile defense system as a kind of invitation. The response from the NKs has been silence, missile tests and, now, an H-bomb test. With that response, we now hear that the environmental review has been completed and these four additional anti-missile platforms are being installed. Of course, we are also told that the installation is only "temporary". Most likely, that means that the missiles will be there for, at most, 100 years.
This is another of those moves in Korea that the Chinese will not like. They don't want anti-missiles in place in Korea since they fear that those missiles could be used against their own forces. It's something else that might finally motivate China to put the NK's in their place. China has also issued a condemnation of the idea that the USA might cut off trade with nations that trade with North Korea, another arrow aimed squarely at motivating China. It's a silly idea in reality; it would do substantial damage not just to China, but also to the USA were we actually to cut off trade with China. Nevertheless, the message to the Chinese is clear, and they don't like it. You have to give the Trump Administration credit; these kinds of moves were never done by Obama. He just sat there and dithered while things always got worse.
This is another of those moves in Korea that the Chinese will not like. They don't want anti-missiles in place in Korea since they fear that those missiles could be used against their own forces. It's something else that might finally motivate China to put the NK's in their place. China has also issued a condemnation of the idea that the USA might cut off trade with nations that trade with North Korea, another arrow aimed squarely at motivating China. It's a silly idea in reality; it would do substantial damage not just to China, but also to the USA were we actually to cut off trade with China. Nevertheless, the message to the Chinese is clear, and they don't like it. You have to give the Trump Administration credit; these kinds of moves were never done by Obama. He just sat there and dithered while things always got worse.
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