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| THAAD launch (File Photo) |
US defense secretary Ashton Carter on Thursday arrived in South Korea for the second leg of his first Asian tour since he took office in February. After finishing the three-day tour to Japan, one of the two major US allies in Asia along with South Korea, he flew to Seoul.
During his three-day stay here, Carter is scheduled to hold face-to-face talks with his South Korean counterpart Han Min-koo Friday and meet with other government officials. He will also spend time with the 28,500 US soldiers stationed there.
Even before his arrival, a wave of speculative reports on the real intention behind Carter's visit were published in local news outlets. Carter is known to have strongly advocated missile defenses, citing nuclear and missile threats from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The visit of Carter, a famous "hawk" on missile defense, added fuels here to the already-inflamed controversy over the deployment of the advanced US missile defense system, called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), on the Korean Peninsula.
Read the full story at Want China Times