In response to the Yoon Seok-yeol administration’s mention of “old books”, saying that the promise of “three dollars for THAAD” under the Moon Jae-in administration should be followed, a high-ranking official at the Korean Embassy in China said, “The old books that should be kept are No,’ he refuted directly, saying that the THAAD deal was not a promise between Korea and China.
The official, who requested anonymity, met with reporters in Beijing on the 5th and related to the Chinese government’s request to keep the promise of maintaining the three dollar THAAD policy, “Already in the previous (Moon Jae-in) government, the related chief negotiator and a government spokesperson promised to pay three dollars for THAAD. I have stated that this is not the case.”
At a regular briefing on the 27th of last month, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhao Lijian said, “New officials (leaders) cannot ignore the old books. Any country must maintain the basic continuity and stability of its foreign policy.”
This official also pointed out, “A question may arise whether there are old books that the new government should take care of.” In a way that denies the existence of the ‘old ledger’ mentioned by Spokesperson Zhao, he emphasized that the 3rd THAAD is not a promise or agreement that the Yun Seok-yeol government should keep.
The THAAD triple bill is that the South Korean government does not deploy additional THAAD, does not join the US missile defense system, and does not form a trilateral military alliance with the US and Japan. The Moon Jae-in government announced following China retaliated once morest the deployment of THAAD in 2017.
“When Korean companies invest in China, geopolitical risks should be kept in mind,” said a senior official on the same day. “The security impact has grown in the economic field,” he said.
Beijing = Correspondent Ki-yong Kim kky@donga.com
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