What South Korea truly needs to ensure its national security is a friendly neighborhood rather than a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system at the cost of the interests of surrounding countries such as China.
The joint decision of Seoul and Washington in early July to deploy the system on the Korean Peninsula breaks the strategic balance in Northeast Asia, threatening if not dooming regional peace and stability with a possible onset of a new Cold War.
With the system's X-band radar commanding surveillance of an area that extends over 1,900 km from the peninsula, the United States can spy on almost half of China's territory and the southern part of Russia's Far East, endangering the two countries' national security.
Seoul's move represents a departure from its past successes marked by a courageous shift from confrontation to cooperation to break the curse of the Cold War seen in hosting the 1988 Olympics. That event earned it a turning point in history to enable economic prosperity in a better security environment.
Good relations with surrounding countries have helped its economy tide over the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and the global turmoil in 2008, and made it a big winner in Northeast Asia and the whole world.
Geographic location has made its connections with China both necessary and convenient as China has become its biggest trading partner and biggest investment destination.
South Korea's annual trade with China is worth 300 billion U.S. dollars, which exceeds the total volume of its trade with the United States, Japan and the European Union combined, with 60 percent of its trade surplus coming from China. South Korea's economy has benefited much from cooperation with China as well as joint efforts toward regional peace and stability.
On top of these, membership of Beijing-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and a bilateral free trade deal are expected to drive it further forward on the way to economic success.
However, its decision to deploy THAAD regardless of Beijing's repeated opposition risks the prospect. As a THAAD system on its soil fits well into Washington's planned missile shield against China in the Asia-Pacific, the diversion from its 30-year fruitful commitment to regional peace and stability damages its political mutual trust with China.
Meanwhile, as the move is expected to stimulate Pyongyang to go further on its way of nuclear development, a vicious cycle of military confrontation is looming on an already volatile Korean Peninsula.
Disregarding old war memories, Cold War wounds and new lessons from intervention by outside forces in West Asia and North Africa, Seoul may face an outcome it cannot afford by tying itself to the U.S. chariot of Asia-Pacific re-balancing, or rather reducing itself to a ladder to be kicked down after serving the U.S. purpose of hegemony.
