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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 31 May 2017
South Korea’s new leader orders

probe of US missile launchers

ousted from office in March ed an unidentified Defense confirm the report.
over a corruption scan- Ministry official as saying A THAAD battery consists of
dal. Moon has nominated the ministry told Moon’s six truck-mounted launch-
some of his own Cabinet national security director ers that can fire up to 48 in-
members, but they haven’t about the four launchers terceptor missiles, fire con-
formally taken office. Moon the day after the policy trol and communication
was sworn in as president briefing. But Yonhap said equipment, and a power-
right after winning a May the presidential Blue House ful X-band radar officially
A U.S. missile defense system called Terminal High Altitude Area 9 by-election, and hasn’t denied that. known as AN/TPY-2. The
Defense, or THAAD, is installed on a golf course in Seongju, had the usual two-month Both the Defense Ministry THAAD system was installed
South Korea. transition period. and the Blue House said in the southeastern town of
(Kim Jun-beom/Yonhap via AP) Yonhap news agency cit- they couldn’t immediately Seongju.q

By HYUNG-JIN KIM
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)
— Calling it a “very shock-
ing” incident, South Ko-
rea’s new president on
Tuesday demanded an
investigation into why his
office wasn’t told by de-
fense officials about the
arrival of several additional
launchers for a contentious
U.S. missile defense system
meant to cope with North
Korea’s nuclear threat.
Before taking office on May
10, Moon Jae-in vowed
to review the deployment
of a system that has infu-
riated both North Korea
and China, which consider
its powerful radar a secu-
rity threat. Many of Moon’s
supporters don’t want the
system, which U.S. Presi-
dent Donald Trump sug-
gested Seoul should pay
for.
On Tuesday, senior presi-
dential adviser Yoon
Young-chan said Moon
has discovered that four
additional launchers for
the Terminal High-Altitude
Area Defense, or THAAD,
system have arrived in
South Korea since the origi-
nal two launchers were in-
stalled in April.
Yoon said senior Defense
Ministry officials didn’t re-
port the arrival of the addi-
tional launchers when they
gave Moon’s policy advi-
sory committee a briefing
last Thursday.
“President Moon said it’s
‘very shocking’ after re-
ceiving a report” on the
incident from his national
security director, Yoon said
at a news conference.
Moon, a liberal, is now work-
ing with Cabinet members
who were appointed by his
conservative predecessor,
Park Geun-hye, who was