[gozur88]

THAAD is theater ballistic missile defense. Not sure why China would care, particularly when the South Koreans don't have nuclear weapons.

There's quite a bit of evidence for nuclear armed US warships calling at South Korean ports, but US ships already have ballistic missile defenses.

[yongjik]

Well, South Korea (thankfully) doesn't have nukes, but we have lots of US military bases and they can easily have nukes.

Honestly, I don't see what difference a missile defense would make to SK, when North Korea can set Seoul in fire with artillery.

At least I understand that having a missile defense system right in front of China will help the US in its geopolitical game against China. What I don't understand is why our politicians think it's a good idea to act as a conspicuous pawn in this game.

[gozur88]

>Honestly, I don't see what difference a missile defense would make to SK, when North Korea can set Seoul in fire with artillery.

While I agree the North Koreans can do a tremendous amount of damage to Seoul with artillery, these are really calculations on the strategic, nuclear level. The North Korean conventional ballistic arsenal is too small to matter very much.

What they're really worried about is South Korea developing the capability to stop the North Koreans from delivering a nuclear bomb. The Chinese are probably thinking the US is more likely to nuke the North Koreans if we don't believe they can retaliate effectively.

Still, it doesn't make much sense to me. If we were to make a first strike on North Korea we would get their nukes with a pretty high degree of confidence. Not that we would anyway, but the strategic consideration there is China's response, not North Korea's.