A group of American activists opposing the deployment of a US anti-missile system in South Korea arrived in the country Sunday to call for the withdrawal of the decision.
The US Solidarity Peace Delegation includes former Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein, Medea Benjamin, head of the women-led peace group CODEPINK, Will Griffin of Veterans For Peace and Reece Chenault of US Labor Against War as members.
The delegation will hold a news conference in central Seoul on Tuesday to issue a statement calling for the withdrawal of the anti-missile system. The statement was signed by some 200 world-renowned scholars such as Noam Chomsky and civic activists in the United States, according to the group.
On Wednesday, they will meet with relevant government officials and attend a weekly rally led by the Stop THAAD in Korea and Militarism in Asia and the Pacific (STIK), a network composed of 100 civic and social groups around the country against the THAAD deployment, in Seongju, some 296 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
The U.S. military began deploying the system, known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), there in March under an agreement with the former conservative government led by President Park Geun-hye to help counter North Korea's ballistic missile threats.
But the deployment has been suspended since the new liberal Moon Jae-in government, which took office in May 10, raised the need for a new, comprehensive environmental impact assessment. (Yonhap)
