[THE INVESTOR] South Korea has not detected any signs of China’s retaliatory movement in trade following the decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, the Trade Ministry here said on July 18.

Seoul and Washington have decided to place the advanced US. missile defense system on South Korean soil by 2017, saying that the deployment is aimed at countering North Korea‘s growing nuclear and missile threats.


The issue has attracted opposition from China, which argues that the system could target neighboring countries in the end as THAAD is designed to shoot down a ballistic missile at altitudes of 40 to 150 kilometers in its terminal phase of flight using a hit-to-kill method.

Days after Seoul’s THAAD announcement, a Chinese carmaker decided to stop producing an electric vehicle equipped with a South Korean-made battery, citing that the battery maker, Samsung SDI, failed to get the government’s approval.

The move raised concerns in South Korea that the Chinese government has taken action in retaliation.

“We’ve not received any reports on China’s such retaliatory movements,” said Vice Trade Minister Woo Tae-hee said in a regular briefing, refuting the news reports on the electric vehicle battery issue.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)