Beijing wags finger at Seoul on Thaad, Three Nos

정주희 입력 2022. 8. 11. 15:49 수정 2023. 8. 8. 20:22
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"Regarding the so-called Three Nos, we reminded the Chinese side once again that it was not a promise or an agreement, as pronounced by the former administration as well," said the ministry. "The more China keeps mentioning the matter, the more costs it will inflict to our bilateral ties."

"For Beijing to mention 'Three Nos and One Restriction' a day after the meeting, that is a public message from Beijing to Seoul to say it has no intention to concede on the Thaad issue," Kim Jin-ho, a professor of political science at Dankook University, told the JoongAng Ilbo. "It could have been a strategy for Beijing to appear agreeable during the ministerial meeting and then reveal the hardline policy of President Xi Jinping afterwards."

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Just a day after a foreign ministers meeting Korea hailed as friendly and frank, the Chinese Foreign Ministry rekindled the debate on a U.S.-led antimissile system — and told Seoul to keep to past promises...
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin gestures during a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing on Aug. 8. [AFP/YONHAP]

Just a day after a foreign ministers meeting Korea hailed as friendly and frank, the Chinese Foreign Ministry rekindled the debate on a U.S.-led antimissile system — and told Seoul to keep to past promises.

“Previously, the Republic of Korea’s government officially announced its policy of 'Three Nos and One Restriction,’” said Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry in a press briefing on Wednesday.

It was the first time the Chinese government added the expression “one restriction” to the Three Nos policy pledged by the Korean government five years ago.

The Thee Nos refers to a promise the Moon Jae-in government made to Beijing in October 2017 not to make additional deployments of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) anti-missile shield, participate in an American missile defense network or transform the U.S.-Korea-Japan alliance into a military alliance.

The “one restriction” refers to restricting the use of the Thaad system already deployed in Korea, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Seoul balked.

“The Korean government has consistently maintained that Thaad is a means of self-defense to protect the lives and safety of our people from the North Korean nuclear and missile threats, and that it’s not a matter for discussion [with another country],” said the Foreign Ministry in a statement released on Wednesday evening.

“Regarding the so-called Three Nos, we reminded the Chinese side once again that it was not a promise or an agreement, as pronounced by the former administration as well,” said the ministry. “The more China keeps mentioning the matter, the more costs it will inflict to our bilateral ties.”

Foreign Minister Park Jin told the press after meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday that he told Wang the Three Nos was neither an official pledge nor an agreement.

In a press briefing on Thursday, the Defense Ministry’s deputy spokesperson Moon Hong-sik also said it is “inappropriate for other countries to comment on matters related to our defense needs.”

The Three Nos have plagued the Seoul-Beijing ties in recent months even though there is no official statement from either China or Korea spelling out the policy.

An official statement issued by the Korean Foreign Ministry after Korea's Nam Gwan-pyo, deputy chief of the National Security Council at the time, met with Kong Xuanyou, assistant foreign minister of China, in October 2017 stated that the Chinese side “expressed concerns” on the three issues, and that the Korean government “explained its positions.”

These positions were explained by Kang Kyung-wha, foreign minister at the time, when she told the National Assembly in the same month that the Korean government was not thinking of an additional deployment of Thaad or participating in an American missile defense network, and that trilateral cooperation with Washington and Japan would not develop into a military alliance.

She stressed, however, that these were Korean government positions and not pledges made to the Chinese government.

There was no mention of restricting the use of the Thaad system already deployed in Korea.

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration, which succeeded the Moon government in May, has maintained the Three Nos was a position of the previous government that can be adjusted by the current administration.

The administration has also denied the existence of the “one restriction” policy.

The presidential office said Thursday that the Thaad system deployed in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang, will be up and running by end of August. The system, though deployed for five years, has yet to be used because the Korean government did not give a green-light to the military base that hosts the system, citing environmental concerns.

Analysts said the Chinese government clearly wants to increase diplomatic pressure on Korea.

“For Beijing to mention ‘Three Nos and One Restriction’ a day after the meeting, that is a public message from Beijing to Seoul to say it has no intention to concede on the Thaad issue,” Kim Jin-ho, a professor of political science at Dankook University, told the JoongAng Ilbo. “It could have been a strategy for Beijing to appear agreeable during the ministerial meeting and then reveal the hardline policy of President Xi Jinping afterwards.”

In the meeting in Qingdao, Shandong Province, on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang told Korea's Minister Park that Beijing and Seoul should "respect each other's important concerns" and not interfere in "internal matters."

Washington also reacted to the Chinese statement on Wednesday.

"Criticism or pressure on the Republic of Korea to abandon its self-defense is inappropriate," Pentagon spokesperson Martin Meiners told Radio Free Asia.

"Thaad is a prudent and limited self-defense capability designed to counter DPRK weapons programs," he said, using the acronym for North Korea's full name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

BY ESTHER CHUNG, JEONG JIN-WOO [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]

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