21 April 2017

News Story: S.Korea completes land provision deal with USFK for THAAD site

SEOUL, April 20 (Xinhua) -- South Korea on Thursday completed a deal to provide U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) with land which had been acquired from Lotte Group earlier this year to deploy the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system.

Around 300,000 square meters of land out of the 1.48 million square meters of the golf course, for which Seoul's military had swapped its land near Seoul, was offered to the USFK to operate the U.S. missile shield, Newsis news agency reported, citing the defense ministry.

The deal was reached about 50 days after the foreign ministry's launch of negotiations with the USFK to provide land for military purpose according to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

The rest of procedures necessary to deploy the THAAD battery would be led by the defense ministry, including an environmental assessment and the construction of facilities inside the base.

Read the full story at Xinhua