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Say NO To THAAD & STOP the WAR GAMES!

Rally at South Korea Consulate San Francisco

"Illegal THAAD, back to the U.S." read their signs. On March 18, 5000 people from across South Korea gathered to protest the forced deployment of the U.S.'s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system on a resistant populace.

The THAAD deployment in Seongiu County is not designed to protect South Korean citizens at all, says JJ Suh, professor of Politics and International Affairs at International Christian University in Japan. "This system is designed to work at higher altitudes, higher than 45 kilometers. But most North Korean missiles are short-range missiles that would fly below 45 kilometers." The THAAD system does, however, serve U.S. strategic interests in the region. It is clear from the locations of American missile defense systems all over the world, mainly in Eastern Europe and Asia, that their deployments are aimed at creating a network surrounding China and Russia.

Missile defense systems are dangerous precisely because they enable a preemptive nuclear strike, warn staff writers for ZoominKorea, by removing the enemy's ability to retaliate. Former U.S. President George W Bush walked away from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union in 2002, after thirty years of relative stability guaranteed by mutually assured destruction.

Completion of an environmental impact assessment, "to strengthen public support for the missile system by shoring up its political legitimacy," fails to address the core concern of THAAD opponents: U.S. intervention in the affairs of a sovereign state.

A cease-fire in July 1953 left North and South "in a tense state of armed truce ever since, with open warfare just a hair-trigger away,"notes Colombia University's Charles Armstrong. Despite initial ambivalence about the missile defense system, and longed-for rapprochement with the northern half of an illegitimately partitioned country, South Korean President Moon Jae-In appears to have capitulated to U.S. interests.

Hella Organized Bay Area Koreans (HOBAK) demand that President Moon push for a Korean peace treaty and stop deployment of the THAAD missile defense system.

"The Korean War never ended," say event organizers. "This July 27th marks the 64th anniversary of the Korean Armistice, an agreement that stopped 'hostilities by armed forces'. 64 years later, the people of Korea and the Asia Pacific Region still face U.S. militarism and constant threats to their land and life.

"When Peace Comes, THAAD Goes!!"

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