South Korea’s Missile Defense: Balancing Between the U.S. & China

Posted: February 14th, 2017

By Tong Zhao

Tong Zhao is a Fellow at the Nuclear Policy Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, based at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing. He was previously a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow with the Managing the Atom Project and the International Security Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. He has held a number of other positions, including as a nonresident WSD-Handa Fellow at Pacific Forum CSIS and working for the Office of Foreign Affairs of the People's Government of Beijing Municipality. Zhao is a member of the Asia Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation & Disarmament.

North Korea’s missile test on Sunday reaffirmed the case for greater missile defense in South Korea, but it did nothing to change China’s perspective on the matter. Beijing believes that any U.S. missile defense in South Korea would undermine its strategic nuclear deterrent, and therefore its national security. The U.S. and South Korean decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system has strained relations between Seoul and Beijing. The Cipher Brief spoke with Tong Zhao, a fellow at the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment in Beijing to learn more about each side’s perspective and to ask what could happen when the system is finally deployed.

The Cipher Brief: Many countries utilize missile defense systems as a vital part of their national security. Sometimes neighboring countries do not object, but in notable cases neighboring countries do. What conditions are usually present to turn the deployment of missile defense into a contentious issue?

Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.