SKorea to freeze new THAAD deployment

SKorean tied to ferry disaster extradited, arrested

SEOUL, June 7: South Korea will suspend any further deployment of a controversial US missile defence system until an environmental impact assessment ordered by new President Moon Jae-in is finished, his office said Wednesday.

Seoul agreed last year under Moon’s ousted predecessor Park Geun-Hye to deploy the powerful missile intercept system to guard against threats from nucleararmed North Korea despite angry opposition from Beijing, which views it as a threat to its own military capabilities.

Two missile launchers have been deployed in the southern county of Seongju, where hundreds of residents have staged fierce protests over what they see as potential environmental hazards posed by the batteries used in the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

There is “no need to withdraw” the two launchers that have already been deployed, a senior official at the South’s presidential office told reporters.

However, “additional deployment (of THAAD) should be carried out only after the environmental impact assessment is over,” the official added.

“We do not view the deployment process as urgent enough to bypass the whole environmental impact assessment,” he said.

The deployment freeze comes two days after Moon ordered a “proper” probe into the potential environmental impact of the missile batteries in a bid to win greater public support for the project.

Four more launchers arrived recently in the South and are currently being stored at a US army base in the country, which plays host to some 28,500 US troops as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The South’s army came under fire this week after Moon — who voiced ambivalence about THAAD on the campaign trail — accused it of withholding key information about the progress of the system.

According to Moon’s office, top military brass who briefed Moon’s national security adviser last month deliberately withheld information about the arrival of the four new launchers.

A senior defence ministry official was removed from his position over the incident.

Also: SEOUL:

The daughter of the South Korean tycoon blamed for the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster arrived in Seoul Wednesday to face questioning over her own role in the affair, after being extradited from France.

Yoo Som-Na was detained in Paris in May 2014 and has been wanted in South Korea on suspicion of embezzling millions of dollars from subsidiaries of her family’s company, Chonghaejin Marine Co.

South Korean authorities believe the alleged embezzlement contributed to safety defects which led to the April 2014 sinking that claimed the lives of 304 people, most of them high school children.

Yoo denied the “outrageous” allegations after arriving at the Incheon Prosecutors’ Office for questioning.

“I’ve never embezzled anything from the company,” she told reporters, adding that the only money she had ever taken was “the pay I received for my service”.

Yoo, her wrists handcuffed in front of her and covered with a black cloth for privacy, wept when asked about the disaster.

“I cannot help crying whenever I think about the victims... no words can possibly console the relatives,” she said.

Yoo, 51, was detained for 13 months in France but released in the middle of 2015.

But in June last year, the then-prime minister Manuel Valls signed a decree for her extradition. Yoo appealed the decision but it was upheld.