SEOUL — The United States agreed to start negotiations to allow South Korea to build more powerful ballistic missiles to counter North Korea’s rapidly-advancing missile technologies, the office of the South’s president said Saturday.
President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, long considered a dovish leader, called for arms buildup talks with Washington hours after the North launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, that experts said had a long enough range to reach the West Coast of the United States and potentially Chicago and New York. The White House quickly accepted the proposal, Moon’s office said.
Moon’s top national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, called his White House counterpart, Gen. H.R. McMaster, early Saturday to propose that the allies immediately start negotiations to allow South Korea to increase its missile capabilities. McMaster agreed to the proposal, which would likely involve increasing the payload on South Korea’s ballistic missiles, officials said.
Under the terms of a bilateral treaty, South Korea needs approval from the United States to build such stronger missiles.
Earlier on Saturday, Moon ordered his government to cooperate with the United States to install an advanced US missile defense battery known as THAAD, whose deployment in South Korea had been suspended since he took office in May.
Moon’s actions signaled that the growing missile threat from North Korea was spurring an arms buildup in Northeast Asia. Japan earlier said that it was considering buying ballistic missile defense systems from the United States.
But China has adamantly opposed installing THAAD in South Korea, arguing that doing so would only heighten tensions with North Korea and could undermine China’s own nuclear deterrent by giving the United States another means to monitor its missiles.
On Saturday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the resumed deployment of THAAD, issuing a statement that was more strongly worded than its statement earlier in the day criticizing North Korea’s missile test.
“China is gravely concerned with the course of action taken by South Korea,’’ a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Geng Shuang, said in the statement. “Deploying THAAD won’t solve South Korea’s security concerns, won’t solve the related issues on the Korean Peninsula, and will only further complicate issues.’’
Missile analysts remain uncertain and even doubtful that North Korea has cleared all the technical hurdles to building a reliable nuclear-tipped ICBM. But the test on Friday left little doubt that the country, although cut off from most of the global economy and hit with several rounds of United Nations sanctions, was getting closer to its goal of arming itself with long-range missiles that can deliver nuclear warheads to the United States.
South Korea fears that by building nuclear missiles able to reach major US cities, North Korea is trying to weaken the United States’ resolve to intervene on the South’s behalf should war break out on the Korean Peninsula.
On Saturday, Moon called for strengthening South Korea’s deterrence capabilities, while emphasizing the importance of the military alliance with the United States.
“We must actively look for measures to secure our military’s own forces to deter and effectively deal with North Korea’s nuclear threats,’’ Moon said after an emergency meeting with his security team.
South Korea wants to build ballistic missiles that can deliver more powerful payloads to targets in North Korea, including the location of its leadership and its missile and nuclear sites, most of which are hidden deep underground, defense officials here said.
A key hurdle to the South Korean ambition has been a treaty the South signed with Washington in the 1970s in return for US help in building its missiles.
Under the deal, South Korea is allowed to build ballistic missiles with a range of up to 497 miles but is barred from tipping them with warheads weighing more than half a ton, because of concerns about a regional arms race. South Korea wants to double the upper limit of the payload to a ton, officials here said.
The South Korean demands reflected growing regional anxiety over how the North’s growing missile capabilities might affect Washington’s defense commitment to its allies in the region. On Saturday, Moon warned that the latest North Korean test could lead to “a fundamental change in the security structure in Northeast Asia.’’
Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, said, “US policy for 21 years has been to prevent this day from coming, and now it has,’’ referring to the North’s ICBM test on Friday.
“North Korea didn’t test an ICBM to launch a bolt from the blue against Washington,’’ he said. “They’re hoping to split the United States from its allies.’’
Barry Pavel, director of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, said North Korea could use a nuclear-tipped ICBM capability to “target the United States and deter US security cooperation with its close Asian allies.’’
“Once it is assured that it has a ‘nuclear shield,’ North Korea is likely to act much more aggressively in every other area of its foreign and military policies,’’ said Pavel.
