China warned that the plans by the US and South Korea to deploy a missile defence system on the Korean Peninsula may destabilise the region and is not conducive to achieving “denuclearisation”.
The deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system was taken jointly by the US and South Korea, the Pentagon and the South Korean Defence Ministry has announced in a late night statement yesterday.
“The Chinese side is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to this,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The deployment is not conducive to achieving denuclearisation in the peninsula and maintaining its peace and stability, it said.
The move goes against efforts made in calming regional tensions through dialogue and severely harms the security interests of countries in the area including China, as well as the “strategic balance” in the region, it said.
Urging the US and South Korea to terminate the deployment of THAAD, China asked them to “not to take actions which tend to complicate regional situation and harm China’s strategic security interests”.
The Chinese foreign ministry also said that it opposes the imposition of unilateral sanctions after the US announced sanctions on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for the first time, citing human rights abuses.
“China maintains that human rights issues be handled through constructive dialogue and cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.
“China opposes public pressurisation, confrontation, one country’s wilful resort to unilateral sanction on another country based on its domestic law and damage to the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of another country,” he said.
