North Korea's fresh missile test, disguised as a satellite launch, has sent shockwaves all over the Asia-Pacific region, with tensions mountings after South Korea requested the deployment of a US missile defense system on its territory.
In an article entitled "After North Korea Rocket Launch, China Pushes Back Against THAAD", written by Shannon Tiezzi and carried by The Diplomat, current-affairs magazine for the Asia-Pacific, the expert writes that the missile defense announcement "reignited hand wringing in China about the threat THAAD poses to Chinese national security" and that "In fact, official statements from the Chinese Foreign Ministry on THAAD deployment were more severe than its statements responding to the North Korean launch."
The author also points to "an English-language commentary published online by Xinhua (which) takes the position that deploying THAAD "does more harm than good", quoting it as declaring that "the likely THAAD deployment is detrimental to the efforts to solve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula as it is likely to trigger an arms race in the troubled region".
Boris Volkhonsky, Head of the Asian Section at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (studio guest); Bryce Swerhun, expert at the City University of Hong Kong; and Masato Otaka, Deputy Press Secretary of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Japan (from Tokyo), commented on the issue.
