Tag Archives: Missile Defense

China paper says U.S., South Korea will ‘pay the price’ for planned missile system

THAAD missile system

BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States and South Korea are destined to “pay the price” for their decision to deploy an advanced missile defense system which will inevitably prompt a “counter attack”, China’s top newspaper said on Saturday.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has been high this year, beginning with North Korea’s fourth nuclear test in January, which was followed by a satellite launch, a string of tests of various missiles, and its fifth and largest nuclear test last month.

In July, South Korea agreed with the United States to deploy the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system to protect against any North Korean threats.

South Korea aims to deploy the system on a golf course, a defense ministry official said on Friday.

But the plan has angered China, which worries that THAAD’s powerful radar would compromise its security and do nothing to lower temperatures on the Korean peninsula.

In a commentary, the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily said China’s opposition to THAAD would never change as it was a serious threat to the regional strategic security balance.

“Like any other country, China can neither be vague nor indifferent on security matters that affect its core interests,” the newspaper said in the commentary, published under the pen name “Zhong Sheng”, meaning “Voice of China”, often used to give views on foreign policy.

The United States and South Korea have to wake up to the fact that the Korean peninsula is no place to take risks, it added.

“If the United States and South Korea harm the strategic security interests of countries in the region including China, then they are destined to pay the price for this and receive a proper counter attack,” the paper added, without elaborating.

NO DETAILS YET

China has repeatedly promised to take specific steps to respond since the THAAD decision was announced, but has given no details about what it may do.

The United States and South Korea have said THAAD does not threaten China’s security or target any country other than North Korea.

China is North Korea’s most important diplomatic and economic partner, but Beijing has been infuriated by its nuclear and missile tests and has signed up for strong United Nations sanctions against North Korea.

However, China has continued to call for talks to resolve the North Korean issue and said sanctions are not the ultimate solution.

At a reception in Pyongyang on Friday for China’s National Day, Chinese Ambassador Li Jinjun said his country wanted to consolidate its friendship with North Korea, China’s Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

The report made no mention of the nuclear issue.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

U.S. to switch on European missile shield despite Russian alarm

U.S. Defense Secretary Carter testifies on operations against the Islamic State on Capitol Hill in Washington

By Robin Emmott

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – The United States’ European missile defense shield goes live on Thursday almost a decade after Washington proposed protecting NATO from Iranian rockets and despite Russian warnings that the West is threatening the peace in central Europe.

Amid high Russia-West tension, U.S. and NATO officials will declare operational the shield at a remote air base in Deveselu, Romania, after years of planning, billions of dollars in investment and failed attempts to assuage Russian concerns that the shield could be used against Moscow.

“We now have the capability to protect NATO in Europe,” said Robert Bell, a NATO-based envoy of U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter. “The Iranians are increasing their capabilities and we have to be ahead of that. The system is not aimed against Russia,” he told reporters, adding that the system will soon be handed over to NATO command.

The United States will also start construction on a second site in Poland on Friday that is due to be ready in 2018, giving NATO a permanent, round-the-clock shield in addition to radars and ships already in the Mediterranean.

Russia is incensed at such of show of force by its Cold War rival in formerly communist-ruled eastern Europe where it once held sway. Moscow says the U.S.-led alliance is trying to encircle it close to the strategically important Black Sea, home to a Russian naval fleet and where NATO is also considering increasing patrols.

The readying of the shield also comes as NATO prepares a new deterrent in Poland and the Baltics, following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. In response, Russia is reinforcing its western and southern flanks with three new divisions.

Despite U.S. assurances, the Kremlin says the missile shield’s real aim is to neutralize Moscow’s nuclear arsenal long enough for the United States to make a first strike on Russia in the event of war.

The shield relies on radars to detect a ballistic missile launch into space. Tracking sensors then measure the rocket’s trajectory and intercept and destroy it in space, before it re-enters the earth’s atmosphere. The interceptors can be fired from ships or ground sites.

The Russian ambassador to Denmark warned a year ago that Danish warships would become targets for Russian nuclear missiles if Denmark joined the shield project by installing radars on its vessels. Denmark is upgrading at least one frigate to house a ballistic missile sensor.

Turkey is already hosting a U.S. radar and the Netherlands has equipped ships with radars. The United States also has four ships in Spain as part of the defenses, while all NATO nations are contributing funding.

“Ballistic missile defense sites could pose threats to the stability and strategic assets of the Russian Federation,” Russia’s ambassador to NATO, Alexander Grushko, told Reuters last month.

‘ROGUE STATES’

U.S. officials dismiss the Russian view as “strategic paranoia” and blame Moscow for breaking off talks with NATO in 2013 that were aimed at explaining how the shield would operate.

The United States says Russia was seeking a treaty limiting the capability and range of ballistic missile interceptors. “No government could agree to that,” U.S. adviser Bell said.

Russian officials are concerned about technology that the United States says it does not have, including a missile defense interceptor capable of speeds of 10 km (6.2 miles) per second that could destroy Russian missiles.

First agreed by the U.S. government 2007 and then canceled and relaunched by the newly-elected U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009, the missile defense shield’s stated aim is to protect North America and Europe from so-called rogue states such as Iran and North Korea. That is part of a U.S. strategy that includes missile interceptors in California and Alaska.

Ballistic missiles, which differ from cruise missiles because they leave the earth’s atmosphere, can travel distances of up 3,000 km (1,875 miles).

Despite a historic deal between world powers and Tehran to limit Iran’s nuclear program, the West believes Iran’s Revolutionary Guards continue to develop ballistic missile technology, carrying out two tests late last year.

“They are looking for greater distance and accuracy,” said Douglas Barrie, an aerospace defense specialist at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). “They can still miss by hundreds of meters, but that doesn’t rule out firing against a city or a very large airfield.”

(Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

North Korea rocket launch may spur U.S. missile defense buildup in Asia

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – North Korea’s latest rocket launch might kick off a buildup of U.S. missile defense systems in Asia, U.S. officials and missile defense experts said, something that could further strain U.S.-China ties and also hurt relations between Beijing and Seoul.

North Korea says it put a satellite into orbit on Sunday, but the United States and its allies see the launch as cover for Pyongyang’s development of ballistic missile technology that could be used to deliver a nuclear weapon.

Washington sought to reassure its allies South Korea and Japan of its commitment to their defense after the launch, which followed a North Korean nuclear test on Jan. 6.

The United States and South Korea said they would begin formal talks about deploying the sophisticated Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, to the Korean peninsula “at the earliest possible date.”

South Korea had been reluctant to publicly discuss the possibility due to worries about upsetting China, its biggest trading partner.

Beijing, at odds with the United States over Washington’s reaction to its building of artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea, quickly expressed “deep concern” about a system whose radar could penetrate Chinese territory.

China had made its position clear to Seoul and Washington, the Foreign Ministry said.

“When pursuing its own security, one country should not impair others’ security interests,” spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement.

TIPPING POINT

But the North Korean rocket launch, on top of last month’s nuclear test, could be a “tipping point” for South Korea and win over parts of Seoul’s political establishment that remain wary of such a move, a U.S. official said.

South Korea and the United States said that if THAAD was deployed to South Korea, it would be focused only on North Korea.

An editorial in the Global Times, an influential tabloid published by the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s official People’s Daily newspaper, called that assurance “feeble”.

“It is widely believed by military experts that once THAAD is installed, Chinese missiles will be included as its target of surveillance, which will jeopardize Chinese national security,” it said.

Japan, long concerned about North Korea’s ballistic missile program, has previously said it was considering THAAD to beef up its defenses. The North Korean rocket on Sunday flew over Japan’s southern Okinawa prefecture.

Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Monday the Defense Ministry had no concrete plan to introduce THAAD, but added the ministry believed new military assets would strengthen the country’s capabilities.

Riki Ellison, founder of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, said the launch would give Japan momentum to deploy THAAD.

Washington moved one of its five THAAD systems to Guam in 2013 following North Korean threats, and is now studying the possibility of converting a Hawaii test site for a land-based version of the shipboard Aegis missile defense system into a combat-ready facility.

EFFECTIVENESS QUESTIONED

Some experts questioned how effective THAAD would be against the type of long-range rocket launched by North Korea and the Pentagon concedes it has yet to be tested against such a device.

THAAD is designed to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles inside or just outside the atmosphere during their final, or terminal, phase of flight. It has so far proven effective against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles.

John Schilling, a contributor to the Washington-based 38 North project that monitors North Korea, said THAAD’s advanced AN/TPY-2 tracking radar built by Raytheon Co could provide an early, precise track on any such missile.

David Wright, co-director of the Global Security Program at the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said that while THAAD could not shoot down the type of rocket launched on Sunday its deployment could reassure the South Korean public.

“Much of what missile defense programs are about is reassuring allies and the public,” he said.

SUITABLE SITE IDENTIFIED

One U.S. official said the North Korean launch added urgency to longstanding informal discussions about a possible THAAD deployment to South Korea. “Speed is the priority,” said the official, who asked not to be named ahead of a formal decision.

Renewed missile-defense discussions with the United States could also send a message to Beijing that it needs to do more to rein in North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs, another U.S. official said.

South Korean officials have already identified a suitable site for the system, but it could also be placed at a U.S. base on the Korean peninsula, Ellison said.

THAAD is a system built by Lockheed Martin Corp that can be transported by air, sea or land. The Pentagon has ordered two more batteries from Lockheed.

One of the four THAAD batteries based at Fort Bliss, Texas, is always ready for deployment overseas, and could be sent to Japan or South Korea within weeks, Ellison said.

Lockheed referred all questions about a possible THAAD deployment to the U.S. military.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick in Washington. Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka and Tim Kelly in Tokyo and Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Dean Yates and Lincoln Feast)