South Korean opposition lawmakers to visit China over THAAD
Delegation will tell Foreign Minister Wang Yi that presidential hopeful Moon Jae-in would reconsider deployment of anti-missile defence system
Eight lawmakers from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) will visit China later this week for talks with Chinese government officials and academics over the planned deployment of an US anti-missile system to South Korea, a major thorn in relations between Seoul and Beijing.
While staying in China for three days from Wednesday, they plan to deliver “messages” from DPK presidential hopefuls, including Moon Jae-in, on the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system.
Their itinerary includes a meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, according to Representative Song Young-gil.
Other lawmakers who will visit China along with Song include reprenstatives Youn Kwan-suk, Park Chan-dae, Shin Dong-kuen, Yoo Dong-soo, Yoo Eun-hae, Park Jeung and Jung Jae-ho.
Moon, the odds-on favourite in this year’s presidential election, and other presidential hopefuls of the party have called for reconsideration of the THAAD deployment and letting the next government decide whether to scrap the decision or not.
The demand has been made after President Park Geun-hye, who strongly pushed for the deployment despite huge controversy, was impeached by the National Assembly on December 9 over a corruption and influence-peddling scandal.