SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) — South Korea’s two main presidential candidates Moon Jae-in and Ahn Cheol-soo spoke about security and diplomatic issues including the deployment of the controversial United States Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in a TV debate on Tuesday (April 25) night.
Frontrunner Moon has said the decision to deploy the THAAD should be made by the next president and that cooperation amongst South Korea, the US and China are necessary to prevent further nuclear provocation by North Korea.
The US and South Korea last year agreed to deploy the THAAD system to counter the threat of missile launches by North Korea. However, the move has angered China, which says the advanced system will do little to deter the North while destabilizing the regional security balance.
The US military started moving parts of its controversial THAAD anti-missile defense system to a deployment site in South Korea on Wednesday (April 26) morning. Moon’s spokesperson said in a statement that the move by the US military to deploy elements of the THAAD anti-missile defense was strongly regrettable.
Ahn said the fine dust issue is critical in the country and that environmental issues should be added alongside diplomatic and security-related issues to be discussed in summit meetings.
