China has been allegedly campaigning South Korea to reject the U.S.’ THAAD missile defense system from getting deployed in the Korean peninsula. China even offered the North’s twin economic incentives in exchange for its non-purchase of the advanced missile-defense battery system.

A report by the Washington Free Beacon said Chinese President Xi Jinping has been vigorously persuading President Park Geun-hye to reject the system in South Korea. The anti-missile system has been afforded as so effective it can knock out missile from both North Korea and China. If Mr Xi gets to be successful, South Korea will enjoy a number of increased trade and business with China.

It seemed the Chinese leader’s efforts paid off. South Korea’s defence ministry on Monday affirmed and confirmed it will not be acquiring the U.S.’ advanced defence system. “The defense ministry has no plan to purchase a THAAD system,” Yonhap news agency quoted Kim Min-seok, ministry spokesman, as telling a regular briefing. “Basically, the system would do good to better defend the country from missiles from North Korea, but we will make a judgment by putting the national interest as our top priority.”

The U.S. has been wooing the North’s twin to join its Asian missile defense system. But South Korea remain opposed to the proposition. The U.S. said it wants to deploy the THAAD on Korean soil to better strategise against the threats posed by Pyongyang’s increasing nuclear and missile capabilities. There are currently about 28,500 American troops deployed in South Korea.

Arirang News reported Seoul is working on its own missile defence system. The country expects it to be ready by 2020.

But an unidentified U.S. official cited by Yonhap said South Korea fell like an easy prey to China’s whims. “Unfortunately, the South Korean leadership seems to have easily fallen for Beijing’s calculations,” the official was quoted as saying.

Much as the deployment of the U.S. THAAD battery has been seen as attempts to entice Asian ally to join its missile defense system, so was China’s campaigning. “China wants to use South Korea to weaken and erode three-way defence cooperation between the U.S., South Korea and Japan in a bid for Beijing to gradually replace the U.S. as the most significant Asia-Pacific power,” Yonhap said.

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