In an interview with Reuters, a British news agency, on June 22, President Moon Jae-in released the details of how the previous government rushed to place the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system sooner than planned and raised an issue with the procedures. He also demanded that China withdraw the measures taken in retaliation against the placement of the THAAD missiles. It appears the president is struggling to find a solution to the THAAD issue between the U.S. and China.

According to Moon, last year when South Korea and the U.S. agreed to deploy the THAAD system in Korea, they had planned to place one THAAD launcher in the field by the second half of this year and complete the placement of the remaining five launchers in 2018. President Moon said, "But for some reason that I do not know, this entire THAAD process was accelerated after the nation entered the impeachment phase."

In fact, South Korea and the U.S. brought in and placed not one but two launchers to the Seongju Golf Course in March, just before former President Park Geun-hye was impeached. They also secretly brought in the remaining four launchers to a U.S military base near Seongju and were about to complete the deployment within this year. Cheong Wa Dae came to learn of the situation while investigating the missing information on the delivery of the remaining four THAAD launchers in the latest report by the defense ministry.

President Moon said that in the process of placing the THAAD system "the government neglected the environmental impact assessment, a necessary procedure," and stressed that the new government had no other choice but to take a closer look into the placement of the THAAD missiles in terms of legitimacy.

In previous interviews with the U.S. media, President Moon also said, "I would like to clearly mention that the environmental impact assessment is not intended to cancel or withdraw the agreement to place the THAAD missiles," trying to silence any concerns in the U.S.

The comments he made this day clearly show that the deployment of the THAAD system did not go through normal procedures. That is why the president ordered an environmental impact assessment, and this may also be a message to China. Yet, despite Moon's remarks, China still has doubts that Moon is simply trying to delay the deployment of the missile system.

President Moon said that if he had a chance to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the G20 Summit in Germany on July 7-8, he would ask him to lift the economic retaliation against South Korean businesses.

President Moon said, "If we were to link political and military issues to economic and cultural exchanges, this could lead to some hindrance to the development of our friendly relationship between our two countries." In other words, the deployment of the THAAD system should not be an obstacle to Korea-China relations.

Meanwhile, President Moon urged China to play an active role in resolving the North Korean nuclear issue. Moon said, "Maybe President Trump believes that there is more room for China to engage North Korea and it seems that he is urging China to do more. I can also sympathize with that message." He also said, "China is North Korea's only ally, and China is the country that provides the most economic assistance to North Korea. Without the assistance of China, sanctions won't be effective at all."

According to Reuters, President Moon described North Korea's development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) and said "North Korea will acquire the technology to deploy a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile capable of hitting the mainland United States 'in the not too distant future'," and that "strong" sanctions were inevitable if North Korea launched an ICBM or conducted the sixth nuclear test. He also said that a summit with Kim Jong-un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea was only possible if North Korea showed significant progress in nuclear disarmament.

Moon's comments reflect an intention to support the U.S. administration's policy on North Korea ahead of the bilateral summit. At the same time, President Moon seems to continue the difficult task of resolving the THAAD issue within the framework of solutions to North Korea's nuclear program keeping in mind the meeting with President Xi, which will take place a week after his visit to the U.S.