South Korea's Defense Ministry said Friday that it planned to measure the levels of noise and electromagnetic wave next week near the site where the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is deployed.
The ministry said in a statement that it would conduct an on-spot measurement on Aug. 10 with the Environment Ministry and experts as part of the verification processes for the small-scale environmental impact assessment.
The joint team would review the adequacy of the measurement results of the small-scale green audit, including the levels of electromagnetic wave and noise.
The Defense Ministry submitted the small-scale assessment result on July 24 to the environment ministry, which has been reviewing it. The small-scale green audit was conducted toward about 320,000 square meters of land, the part of a former golf course in Seongju county, North Gyeongsang province.
The small-scale assessment had been carried out since December last year under the ousted President Park Geun-hye government.
President Moon Jae-in, who took office on May 10, recently ordered a "general" assessment of environmental impact on the THAAD site, which would be conducted while construction works are underway.
Residents living near the site and peace activists demanded a "strategic" green audit, which requires the withdrawal of the U.S. missile shield and reviews the adequacy of the THAAD deployment from the very beginning.
The Defense Ministry has insisted that the THAAD's X-band radar emits a small level of electromagnetic wave, but the residents believed that the measurement was manipulated as it was not measured when the radar was in a full operation.
The AN/TPY-2 radar is known to emit super microwaves, detrimental to human body and environment.
Anti-THAAD residents blocked the defense ministry's attempt last month to measure the level of electromagnetic wave as they saw it as an attempt to legitimize the THAAD deployment.
