Seoul ready to 'strongly retaliate' against NKorea

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL (AA) – Seoul's head of national security insisted Wednesday that the military is "ready" to hit back should North Korea go ahead with its threat of a physical response to a new American missile defense system in South Korea.

Washington reached an agreement with the South last week on deploying THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) by the end of next year.

According to local news agency Yonhap, National Security Office chief Kim Kwan-jin told a parliamentary session that "South Korea will strongly retaliate" if provoked by the North.

Still, Kim dismissed Pyongyang's threat as a routine statement -- the kind Seoul and the United States have heard repeatedly.

The security chief also admitted that South Korea has been "trying" to explain to China that the THAAD move is a self-defense measure, amid concerns that Beijing might demonstrate its own dissatisfaction by easing up on sanctions aimed at denuclearizing North Korea.

Given the sense that China is feeling an overbearing U.S. presence in the region, Seoul's foreign ministry released a statement Wednesday urging a resolution of an ongoing South China Sea territorial dispute "through peaceful and creative diplomatic efforts".

Beijing is refusing to recognize an international court's ruling in favor of the Philippines and against China's claims in disputed waters.

Seoul's response was somewhat softer than Washington's insistence hours earlier that the verdict of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is final and legally binding.