Part of the elements of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system was deployed in southeastern South Korea after violent tussle between local residents and police.
Seoul's defense ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that part of the THAAD battery was installed at the site in a bid to secure an initial operational capability without any separate construction of facilities. The statement did not elaborate on what equipments were exactly deployed.
Thousands of police personnel violently dispersed local residents and peace activists who had protested against the U.S. missile shield and blocked the entrance road to the THAAD deployment site. Six residents were taken to a nearby hospital after the tussle.
Seoul and Washington agreed in July last year to deploy one THAAD battery by the end of this year. The site was changed in September last year into a golf course, which Lotte Group had owned, at Soseong-ri village in Seongju county, South Gyeongsang province.
On March 6, two mobile launchers and part of the elements were delivered by a U.S. transport airplane to a U.S. military base in South Korea.
Since then, other THAAD elements had been secretly transported to the U.S. bases in South Korea's port city of Busan, the Osan city near Seoul and the U.S. logistics base Camp Carroll near Seongju, according to Newsis news agency.
A THAAD battery is composed of six mobile launchers, 48 interceptors, an AN/TPY-2 radar and the fire & control unit.
Eight trucks and equipments, including the X-band radar, two mobile launchers and an electric generator, entered the golf course at about 4:45 a.m. local time, according to a statement released by the residents and activists.
The remaining U.S. trucks carrying other equipment were moved to the site some two hours later. A total of 20 U.S. trucks or so carried the THAAD elements, one of the peace activists told Xinhua there.
One resident was conducted away by police, with about 10 others being wounded while attempting to block the entrance that started at around midnight. Thousands of South Korean policemen were mobilized to disperse the protesters.
The initial operational capability of the THAAD would be secured if the mobile launchers, the radar and the fire and control unit are connected to each other, an unidentified South Korean defense ministry official was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.
An unnamed South Korean military source was quoted by Yonhap as saying the U.S. forces plan to test the initial operational capability by deploying the THAAD elements in the site.
The golf course is composed mostly of flatland so that the U.S. forces would need no foundation work for the X-band radar. The land-flattening works to fix mobile launchers would reportedly be conducted.
The Seoul defense ministry said South Korea and the United States made efforts to rapidly secure an operational capability of the THAAD system to respond to what it called the nuclear and missile threats from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
It said the South Korean military plans to secure a full operational capability of the THAAD by the end of this year, while normally proceeding with the remaining deployment procedures such as the environmental assessment and the construction of the THAAD site.
Last Thursday, South Korea provided some 300,000 square meters of the golf course to the U.S. forces stationed here, according to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).
A small scale of the environment assessment on the THAAD site was already completed, according to local media reports.
