hankyoreh

Signs in Seongju

The Blue House’s flip-flopping on the location for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is a sight to behold. On Aug. 5, spokesperson Jeong Yeon-guk said it would “not be easy to change the selected site,” but that the President Park Geun-hye would “have a careful examination of other regions as requested and let [the public] know in detail.” It was an attempt to quiet the controversy stirred up by Park’s comments at a meeting with Daegu/North Gyeongsang Province-area (near Seongju, the site selected for the THAAD deployment) Saenuri Party lawmakers the day before, when she said the THAAD system could be relocated from Seongsan artillery base to a different location within Seongju County.

But in belatedly trying to clear things up after Park’s remarks, the Blue House has been making no sense. First, there is the question of who exactly “requested” careful examination of another region. First, Jeong said it had been Seongju residents; later, he claimed there had been a request during the talk. Attendees at the talk say no such request was made there. At this point, it’s not even clear whether Park’s remarks came after a long thought process befitting the country’s chief decision-maker, or were simply lip service to appease a steamed public.

Even more of a spectacle is the Ministry of National Defense’s zigzagging. On Aug. 5, it declared the Seongsan air defense base in Seongju to be “the optimal location for the THAAD deployment.” It was a reversal from its initial position after hearing about Park’s comments the day before, when it said it would “examine [other sites] if there is a request.” It’s hard to say whether the ministry can really be called a group of defense experts where they bend like a reed at whatever the President has to say.

This flip-flopping from the Blue House and Ministry of National Defense is just one example of the half-baked way things have gone with the THAAD deployment decision. When they can’t even come up with decent logic on the most basic of matters - the location of the deployment - it becomes clear how crude and ineffective its preparations are going to be in other areas like foreign affairs and the economy. Indeed, the administration has been helpless so far in the face of growing obstacles to its pressure tactics against Pyongyang, with the United Nations Security Council failing to adopt a statement denouncing North Korea for its recent ballistic missile test launch because of objections from China and Russia. Fears of retaliation from China are already becoming a reality, with the Chinese Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily criticizing Park by name and Chinese tourist visits to South Korea and Korean Wave (Hallyu) cultural events in China being canceled one after another. Yet all Seoul does is repeat the same talking point about how there is “no need to make a big fuss about how China is going to retaliate.”

It’s not clear whether an important matter like the THAAD deployment can even be left in the hands of such an incompetent administration. Right now, we are facing a basic question. We can no longer place our trust in a government that shoots first and panics, lacking even the capabilities to handle the blowback from the THAAD development with China’s vocal objections and growing conflict at home. At this point, the only thing left is for the National Assembly to take action on the public’s behalf. Our lawmakers need to fix things before it’s too late by making a fair determination on whether the THAAD deployment decision is really appropriate and in the national interest. Hopefully the administration too will realize that leaving the final decision on the THAAD matter to the National Assembly also offers it a way out of its current mess.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]