SEOUL, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Friday made her first mention of a conditional deployment of the U.S. missile shield, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), in South Korean soil, before leaving for Russia to participate in the Eastern Economic Forum.
"The essence of the problem in this matter is the North's nuclear and missile threats. If these threats are eliminated, the need to deploy the THAAD system would naturally disappear,"Park said in a written interview with Russia's Rossiya Segodnya which was posted on a Cheong Wa Dae website.
It marked the first time the South Korean leader mentioned the conditional THAAD deployment, showing signs of a slight change in her hard-line position ahead of her trips to Russia and China that have strongly opposed the U.S. missile defense system.
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