After Pyongyang's rocket launch on Feb.7, Seoul's defense ministry said that its Aegis radar detected the first-stage propellant of the DPRK rocket that had been self-destructed into about 270 fragments to prevent South Korea from collecting and analyzing the propellant.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) emeritus professor Theodore Postol said in an interview with local newspaper Hankyoreh that the DPRK could explode its warhead-carrying missile into multiple pieces to block the THAAD radar from identifying an actual warhead.
As there is no air-drag to slow up light objects relative to heavy objects at a very high altitude, the exploded fragments will serve as false targets, flying along with a real warhead on the same general trajectory, according to Postol. He said the self-destruction technology can be applied to the DPRK's Rodong missiles.
TWO-THIRDS IN FAVOR
A recent survey showed that about two-thirds of South Koreans favored the THAAD deployment, but it could change as controversies remained over safety and possible negative effect on the economy from soured diplomatic ties with neighboring countries.
According to a poll of 1,013 South Korean adults, 67.1 percent expressed support for the THAAD deployment in preparation for the DPRK's nuclear and missile threats. Only 26.2 percent opposed to it in consideration of oppositions from neighboring countries, including China and Russia.
The survey was conducted for two days through Friday by Yonhap news agency and broadcaster KBS.
More than half of respondents even supported South Korea's homegrown development of nuclear weapons or the deployment of U.S. tactical nuclear devices, indicating vague fears seemed to have spread following the DPRK's recent nuclear test and rocket launch. Favoring the denuclearized Korean peninsula accounted for 41.1 percent of the total.
Those vague fears may change into fury at the government if Seoul and Washington begin talks about where and when to deploy the THAAD, of which radar emits super-strong radio waves being harmful to human bodies and paralyzing airplanes and electronic devices within 5.5 km.
Seoul's defense ministry set its estimated safety zone at locations more than 100 meters away from the THAAD radar, saying the radar will do little damage to people standing 100 meters away from it.
U.S. Army's technical report, however, set land within 100 meters of the X-band radar as an absolute hazard zone, banning unauthorized personnel from entering areas within 3.6 km of it due to potential damage to human bodies. Some of local media reports criticized the ministry for possible underestimation of hazard.
Potential harms led the U.S. Army to deploy a THAAD battery in Guam, surrounded by sea, and four batteries in the middle of deserts in Texas. If a THAAD battery is deployed in South Korea, its radar will stand northward and face a densely populated region.
Public rage may arise in candidate cities for the THAAD deployment as the mentioning itself can drag down housing prices, a sensitive issue to ordinary South Koreans. The forced deployment without social consensus would raise anti-American sentiment among residents in candidate regions.
Worrying voice about possible negative effect on the economy was also heard as China is South Korea's biggest trading partner. Cheong Seong-Chang, a senior researcher at the private Sejong Institute, said on the phone that possibility got higher for South Korea's economy to be hit hard if trade with China is affected by regional tension.
Cheong said it became difficult to introduce effective sanctions toward the DPRK as South Korea worsened relations with China and Russia. Seoul's good ties with Beijing and Moscow are crucial to adopting effective anti-DPRK restrictions in cooperation with the international community, he noted.
Calling South Korea's response to recent DPRK provocations as "emotional," the researcher said that Seoul's decision to deploy the THAAD, to which China and Russia showed strong oppositions, would inevitably aggravate relations with China and Russia.
