Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi have criticized suspected U.S. plans to deploy a missile-defense system on the Korean Peninsula in response to North Korean threats of preemptive nuclear strikes against South Korea and U.S. territory.
Speaking after talks with Lavrov in Beijing on April 29, Wang said the sophisticated Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) “will directly affect the strategic security of China and Russia” if it is deployed by the United States.
Wang said the missile-defense system would not ease nuclear tensions in the region.
Lavrov accused Washington of using North Korea’s nuclear tests and ballistic missile tests as “an excuse, as a pretext” to deploy a “global antiballistic missile defense.”
A series of ballistic missile and nuclear tests by North Korea in recent months have pushed South Korea into talks with Washington about deploying the missile defense system.
