The administration of leftist South Korean President Moon Jae-In, who was in office from May 2017 to May 2022, allegedly leaked details of U.S.-South Korea military operations related to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system to communist China and to civic groups in what investigators say was an effort to delay the system's deployment in South Korea.
A Nov. 18 report by South Korea’s Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) revealed that the Moon government disclosed classified information, including the THAAD operation’s name, schedule, and content, to a Chinese military attaché at the Chinese Embassy in Seoul.
Under the relatively conservative government of President Yoon Suk-Yeol, the BAI has referred former National Security Office Director Chung Eui-Yong, former Vice Director Seo Joo-Seok, former Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-Doo, and former Presidential Secretary for Civil Participation Lee Ki-Heon to prosecutors for further investigation, The Chosun Daily reported on Nov. 19.
The Moon administration officials are being investigated for abuse of power and obstruction of duty, the BAI said.
The BAI determined that disclosing the classified military operation details regarding the THAAD missile operation to civic group members and foreign military officers (Chinese military officers) violated the Military Secret Protection Act.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office announced plans to assign the case to a regional prosecutor’s office after reviewing the BAI’s findings, the report said.
The public audit request was filed in July of 2023 by a group of retired generals who alleged the Moon administration intentionally delayed the environmental impact assessment required for the formal deployment of THAAD ahead of Moon’s visit to China in December 2019.
Regarded as an anti-communist ally of the United States following the Korean War, South Korea (Republic of Korea) achieved explosive economic growth under President Park Chung-Hee in the last half of the twentieth century as its government evolved from an authoritarian military regime to a democracy following Park's assassination in 1979.
"China has simply achieved remarkable elite capture through economic envelopment and has exploited many left tendencies in the ROK to capture the Moon side of politics," noted Richard Fisher, a China military specialist with the International Assessment and Strategy Center.
"This is a stark issue almost everywhere. Including here," added Fisher, a contributing editor at Geostrategy-Direct.com.
In an April 25, 2023 analysis for Geostrategy-Direct.com, Fisher wrote: “President Yoon is finally bucking two decades of Chinese coercion that has made South Korea limit its criticism of China in order to sustain profitable economic ties, and even limit its missile defense cooperation with the United States.”
The BAI deployed its special investigation unit in October 2023 and has since audited 11 government agencies, including the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, uncovering evidence of military intelligence leaks, the report said.
THAAD, developed by U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin, is designed for South Korea to counter North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile threats. It consists of radar, missile batteries, and surface-to-air interceptors.
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"China has strongly opposed its deployment in South Korea, arguing that the THAAD radar could potentially detect Chinese ballistic missile launches early, thereby disrupting the strategic nuclear balance between the U.S. and China," The Chosun Daily noted.
In 2016, South Korea under President Park Geun-Hye and the U.S. agreed to deploy THAAD in South Korea. It was temporarily set up at a golf course in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province in April 2017.
Local groups, claiming that THAAD’s radar emissions could pose health risks, protested and both governments decided to conduct a small-scale environmental impact assessment. After Moon took office in May 2017, he ordered a review of the plan and, in July 2017, announced that instead of the small-scale assessment, which would take six months, a general environmental impact assessment lasting over a year would be conducted before deciding on THAAD’s permanent deployment.
The Moon administration never formed the required evaluation committee even though the U.S. Trump Administration submitted its project plan for the assessment in February 2019.
Defense Ministry documents later revealed that the Moon government had delayed the committee’s formation ahead of Moon’s visit to China in December 2019.
"The BAI suspects that this delay was intentional to postpone THAAD’s permanent deployment," The Chosun Daily noted.
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