[Yonhap News Photo]
South Korea's top economic official voiced concern Monday about China's economic retaliation over the controversial deployment of an advanced US missile system on the Korean peninsula to intercept North Korean ballistic missiles.
Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho, however, ruled out the possibility of China imposing any full-scale economic retaliation against South Korea or a dramatic setback in economic ties between Asia's biggest and fourth-largest economies.
"I believe China may separate economy from politics," he told a parliamentary committee in response to criticism from opposition legislators that the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system could seriously hurt economic and diplomatic relations between Beijing and Seoul.
"There may not be any full-scale retaliation," Yoo said, adding South Korea has been working out "various" contingency plans in preparation for China's sanctions.
China expressed "strong discontent and firm opposition" immediately after Seoul and Washington made a joint announcement last week that US troops stationed in South Korea would be armed with the THAAD) missile shield.
"We're worried, but economic relations between South Korea and China will not see any dramatic setback," Yoo said.
US and South Korean officials stressed the missile defense system would be used solely to cope with North Korean nuclear and missile threats without being directed towards any third-party nations.
Beijing, however, warned the THAAD deployment would "seriously" hurt strategic interests of China and other countries as well as the security balance in Northeast Asia.
The THAAD row comes as South Korea seeks to balance the strategic priorities of its main military ally, the United States, against those of its biggest trade partner, China.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
