SEOUL, April 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korean residents and major presidential candidates condemned the violent push to deploy the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system in their territory as about two weeks are left before the launch of a new government.
About 20 trucks and trailers carried the THAAD elements, including a radar and mobile launchers, early Wednesday to a golf course at Soseong-ri village in Seongju county, South Gyeongsang province.
The golf course in southeastern South Korea, which Lotte Group had owned, was exchanged for military land in late February. On March 6, two mobile launchers were transported to a U.S. military base in South Korea.
About 10 days earlier, the Seoul defense ministry said it would be physically hard to install one THAAD battery in the site before the May 9 presidential election due to the remaining procedures such as the foundation work and the environmental assessment.
Earlier in the day, tens of trucks of the U.S. forces entered the golf course despite attempts to block the entrance by local residents and peace activists who were violently dispersed by thousands of South Korean policemen.
One resident was conducted away, with some 10 others being wounded. Among them, six were taken to a nearby hospital.
Last Thursday, some of residents in the Soseong-ri, a tiny, peaceful village where about 160 people mostly in their 70s or 80s are living, were injured during the tussle as they sought to block construction equipments toward the THAAD site.
Read the full story at Xinhua