South Korea should temporarily suspend the deployment of a controversial US missile defense system here until the US convinces China to forgo economic retaliation against South Korea, a South Korean security expert said Thursday.

“I don’t understand why South Korea solely takes the hit from the Chinese economic retaliation,” said Hong Hyun-ik, a senior researcher at Sejong Institute in Seoul, at a seminar on diplomacy, security and unification organized by the Seoul-based think tank.

“The US should play a bigger role in solving the current situation,” he added, suggesting that the Seoul officials bring up the issue to US State Secretary Rex Tillerson who is due to arrive here Friday.

Describing the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system as a “temporary fix,” the researcher said South Korea needs to send word to China that it will withdraw the US weapon system once its own missile defense regime, known as the “Kill Chain,” is up and running. The homegrown Kill Chain is aimed at pre-emptive strikes against North Korean missiles.

The researcher also noted that THAAD is more about protecting the US and Japan than South Korea, because Seoul and its surrounding region, where half of the country’s entire population reside, are vulnerable to North Korea’s incoming missiles.

Some Chinese reporters, rarely spotted in public seminars and government briefings here, approached Hong for interviews after the session. Hong has been a vocal critic of the assertive defense policy taken by former President Park Geun-hye, who decided to station the controversial missile shield on the Korean Peninsula last year.

China has been vocally opposed to the THAAD deployment in South Korea, saying the system will undermine its nuclear deterrent against the US. It also fears Washington will be able to use the platform’s powerful radar to spy deep into its territory.

Since South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group signed a land swap deal with the government for the THAAD battery site, its retail outlets across China have been shut down by authorities and it has been forced to halt construction of a theme park, according to the company.

South Korea and the US military have argued that the weapon system is defensive in nature, asserting its primary target is North Korea. The communist regime test-fired a new type of intermediate ballistic missile, known as the Pukguksong-2, last month and conducted another missile test this month.

By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)