China says US and ROK will suffer consequences if anti-missile system deployed

The United States and the Republic of Korea will suffer the consequences if a US anti-missile system is deployed in the ROK, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday after a company in the ROK approved a land swap with the government.

China strongly urged the relevant parties to stop the system's deployment and "will resolutely take necessary measures to safeguard our security interests, and the US and ROK will suffer all the consequences from this," spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular news conference.

The deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system will gravely harm the regional strategic balance and seriously undermine the security interests of relevant regional countries, including China, he said.

China understands the reasonable concerns of relevant parties to safeguard their security, but the security of one country should not be achieved at the cost of damaging the safety of other countries, he said, adding that China resolutely opposes and is strongly dissatisfied over the deployment.

His remarks follows the approval of a land swap deal between the ROK's Lotte Group and the country's Defense Ministry on Monday.

The ministry decided last year to deploy the THAAD system on land that is part of a golf course owned by Lotte in the Seongju region, southeast of Seoul.

Residents from Seongju, North Gyeongsang province, held a rally in front of the Lotte International head office in Seoul on the day of the board meeting, demanding the company refuse the land provision, according to a report in the Korean Times.

"The approval should be made in the next administration," Na Gyung-che, co-representative of the minor opposition Justice Party was quoted as saying in a media conference at the venue. "We hope Lotte will make a wise decision."

anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn