US deploys anti-missile defence system to South Korea

Donald Trump orders advanced anti-missile defence system deployed to South Korea after the North’s missile launch.

North Korea launched four ballistic missiles. Picture: Yonhap News.

The US has deployed an advanced anti-missile defence system to South Korea in the wake of Pyongyang’s missile launch on Monday, as North Korea claimed the launch targeted US military bases in Japan.

The White House said the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile system was to help Seoul’s own defence against North Korea missiles. Pyongyang fired four ballistic missiles yesterday off the coast of Japan.

“The Trump administration is taking steps to enhance our ability to defend against North Korea’s ballistic missiles such as through the deployment of a THAAD battery to South Korea,” said White House spokesman Sean Spicer.

Ratcheting up already heightened tensions further, theNorth today banned all Malaysian citizens from leaving the country, potentially holding them hostage as the diplomatic row over the killing of Kim Jong-Nam in Kuala Lumpur continues

“All Malaysian nationals in the DPRK will be temporarily prohibited from leaving the country until the incident that happened in Malaysia is properly solved,” the official Korea Central News Agency said, citing the foreign ministry.

As the US began moving the THAAD system to South Korea, Pyongyang announced its missile drill was intended “to strike the bases of the US imperialist aggression forces in Japan.”

#BREAKING: North Korea publishes 1st picture of what they claim was the missiles launch yesterday pic.twitter.com/LcxfvmsHNw

— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) March 7, 2017

According to KCNA, the North Korea state news agency the drill was conducted to review the artillery units’ capacity to handle nuclear warheads and stage military operations swiftly.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the units to be fully ready to open fire to “annihilate the enemies” when the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea gave the order, KCNA reported.

Kim supervised the exercise and ordered the military to “keep highly alert as demanded by the grim situation in which an actual war may break out anytime,” it said.

The drill was seen as a response to South Korean and US Foal Eagle exercise last week — a large scale annual drill which Pyongyang warned would trigger “merciless nuclear counter-action”.

GRAPHIC: KIM’s Nuclear ambitions

The missiles travelled about 1000km, from North Pyongan province near the Chinese border, to land in the Sea of Japan, known the East Sea to South Korea, reaching a low altitude of 260m.

Japanese Prime Minister ­Shinzo Abe told parliament three of the missiles reached his country’s exclusive economic zone, which extends 370km from the coast. “This clearly shows North Korea has entered a new stage of threat,” Mr Abe said.

The North’s repeated launches “clearly violate UN Security Council resolutions”, he added. “We can never tolerate this.”

The plans to deploy THAAD have angered not only North Korea, but also China, which sees the system’s powerful radars as a security threat.

Some South Korean liberal presidential candidates have also said that the security benefits of having THAAD would be curtailed by worsened relations with neighbours China and Russia.