The remaining mobile launchers of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) will be deployed to a military site in South Korea early Thursday, Yonhap news agency quoted local residents as saying Wednesday.
An organization, composed of anti-THAAD civic groups and residents living near the THAAD site, sent an emergency text message, saying it was told through multiple channels that further THAAD launchers would be transported to the site early Thursday.
The anti-THAAD activists and residents asked people to gather at the Soseong-ri village in southeastern North Gyeongsang province, to block the transportation of additional THAAD elements together.
According to Yonhap news agency report, the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) would attempt to deploy four more THAAD launchers to the former golf course at the Soseong-ri village at about 2:00 a.m. Thursday (1700 GMT Wednesday).
On April 26, two mobile launchers and other THAAD elements were delivered midnight to the Soseong-ri village, causing a physical conflict between riot police and residents.
Because of the tussle, some residents and anti-THAAD activists were taken to a nearby hospital for injuries at the time.
A THAAD battery is composed of six mobile launchers, 48 interceptors, the AN/TPY-2 radar and the fire and control unit.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered the temporary deployment of the remaining four launchers, believed to have already been moved to a U.S. military base near the Soseong-ri village, following the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) test in late July of what it called an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
