THAAD system to get golf course site

A private golf course in the country's southeast region has been chosen as the new site for an advanced US missile defense system to be deployed by the end of next year to help cope with threats by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, military officials in Seoul said on Friday.

The Republic of Korea's Defense Ministry in July originally picked a nearby artillery base in the rural farming town of Seongju as the site for Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD.

But Seongju residents fiercely protested the plan, raising fears over potential health hazards they believe the system's powerful radar might cause.

The golf course owned by Lotte business group is also within Seongju, but located farther from major residential areas. However, residents of Gimcheon city, which borders the course, have protested the move that had been anticipated for weeks.

An official from the Defense Ministry, who didn't want to be named, citing office rules, said ministry officials visited lawmakers and regional officials in Seongju and North Gyeongsang Province, which governs the town, to explain the decision. A ministry note provided to lawmakers described the golf course as ideal because it would require less construction than two other possible sites that were on mountains.

Ministry officials began exploring alternative sites after ROK President Park Geun-hye in August promised to consider a new location to "lessen the anxiety" of residents in Seongju. This was weeks after protesters pelted her prime minister with eggs and plastic bottles during a visit to Seongju to explain the decision.

US.and ROK officials say they needed the missile system to better deal with increasing DPRK military threats. After Pyongyang conducted its fifth and most powerful nuclear test to date earlier this month, experts raised worries that the country is moving closer toward gaining the ability to put nuclear warheads on a variety of its ballistic missiles.

The plan to deploy THAAD in the ROK has angered not only the DPRK but also China, which suspects that the system would allow US radar to better track its missiles. Russia also opposes the deployment.

US and ROK officials say the THAAD system targets only the DPRK and no one else.