Can China use Trump-Kim denuclearisation plan to rid South Korea of US missile system?

Beijing could raise issue of Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system when US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits the city on Thursday

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China could use the joint statement by the US and North Korea on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula to push for the removal of the THAAD missile defence system in South Korea. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:24pm, 13 Jun 2018Updated: 3:26pm, 14 Jun 2018

China is likely to use the joint statement by the US and North Korea on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula to push for the removal of a US missile defence system in South Korea, although achieving such a goal could take time, analysts said.

Beijing has said previously that the installation of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system (THAAD) in South Korea caused “serious damage to China’s strategic security interests”.

Shanghai-based military commentator Ni Lexiong said that as “China has done the US a great favour” in taking North Korea to the negotiating table, it might raise the THAAD removal issue during US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to the city on Thursday.

Seoul agreed to introduce the defence system in 2016, citing the threat of North Korea’s rapidly developing missile programme, and its installation was completed last year.

“There is the possibility that THAAD was a measure to pressure China into cooperating on sanctions against North Korea, because technically the US has many other weapons that could hurt China more,” Ni said.