THAAD serious threat to peace, stability of East Asia

A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched during a successful intercept test, in this undated handout photo provided by the US Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency. [Photo/Agencies]

Using the threat of the North Korea's missile program as an excuse, the US and South Korea have decided to deploy THAAD missile defense system in South Korea. This is a serious threat to the peace and stability of East Asia. American decision to deploy THAAD missile defense system in South Korea should be a clear indicator to those who still hold misguided assumption about the US military strategy in East Asia and the world.

The logic of the US military is very simple. It wants to threaten everybody in the world with its own military supremacy, but it will not tolerate anybody else to threaten the US in any way. According to the US strategy, as the only remaining superpower in the world, it should be able to threaten whoever it pleases, and other countries could only put up whatever it had to put up to survive.

In order to survive, Saddam Hussein of Iraq abandoned its nuclear program, and allowed the UN Nuclear Inspection full access to its nuclear program. But in the end, the US still used lies about Iraq’s mass destruction weapon as an excuse to invade Iraq, destabilize Iraq and the region, causing more than a million of civilian causalities there. Today, the Iraqi people are still suffering from the consequences of the illegal invasion of Iraq.

In order to survive, Kaddafi of Libya gave up its nuclear program, with a US promise of nonaggression. But in the end, the US the French and the British bombed the hell out of Libya, decimating Libyan infrastructure, with hundreds and thousands civilian casualties. In the end, the US, the French and the British billed the Libya fifty billions of dollars for the “bombing service,” it rendered, which equals Libya’s oil revenue for the next fifty years.

North Korea government originally agreed to join the nuclear nonproliferation treaty in the 1994 after negotiations with the United States. But the Bush Junior Administration wanted to use North Korea as a means to threaten China, and stopped fulfilling its treaty obligations with North Koreas. In response to US breach of its treaty obligations, North Korea restarted its nuclear program for self defense. In light of what happened in Iraq and Libya, the North Korean Government’s decision to develop its nuclear program for self defense is justified and wise.

Many people in the world, including some Chinese, feel that North Korean’s nuclear program is a threat to the peace and stability of East Asia. They fail to see that North Korean’s nuclear program is for self defense only. The real threat to the peace and stability of East Asia and the world is the humungous nuclear arsenals of the United States and other permanent members of UN Security Council. North Korea’s few nuclear weapons are an effective deterrence against the US continuous provocative military exercises outside North Korean sovereign waters. Without the nuclear deterrence, what happened to Iraqi people and Libyan people would have fallen on the North Korean people. Nobody have any right to criticize North Korean people’s determination to use its nuclear weapons for self defense.

Now the US and South Kea’s deployment of THAAD missile defense system would render North Korea’s nuclear weapons of self defense ineffective. More importantly, the THAAD missile defense system would render China’s and Russia’s nuclear deterrence against the US missiles ineffective as well. This is a serious threat and provocation to the Chinese and Russian National security. In a way, the US and South Korean Government are telling China and Russia that they will continue to threaten China with their missile capability, but will not allow China and Russia to threaten them back.

China must take this new threat very seriously. China cannot afford to ignore this threat to its national security. It must use clear and unequivocal language to tell the US and South Korea that China will not tolerate the existence of THAAD in South Korea. If the US and South Korea ignore the concern of the Chinese people, China should take some measures in collaboration with Russia with consequences which would make the US think twice.

The author is a professor at Warren Wilson College, North Carolina, and a guest professor at Hebei University.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and don't represent views of China Daily website.