Seoul unveils planned location of THAAD missile interceptors

South Korea's Deputy Defense Minister Yoo Jeh Seung announced Wednesday in Seoul that a battery of US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles will be deployed in the country's southeastern Seongju county and be operational in the beginning of 2017. He said the missiles would protect two-thirds of the country's population as well as critical infrastructure including oil storage facilities and nuclear power plants. The US and South Korea decided to deploy the THAAD system to counter conventional and nuclear threats by North Korea following Pyongyang's ballistic missile tests and its repeated threats to attack the South and US military bases in the region.