President Park Geun-hye's attendance at last week's Chinese military parade will turn out to be useful in blunting Beijing's opposition to the possible deployment of a U.S. THAAD missile defense battery to South Korea, a former South Korean foreign minister said Wednesday.

Park's presence at the muscle-flexing parade, which was shunned by Western leaders, led to some U.S. experts and observers raising questions about whether Seoul is tilting too much toward Beijing at a time of growing rivalry between the U.S. and China.

But former South Korean Foreign Minister Han Sung-joo said that South Korea must have decided on the attendance after close consultations with the U.S., and that the decision could after all prove to be helpful for the possible deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery to South Korea.

"If and when South Korea decides to have the THAAD missile deployed in Korea, Park's September visit to Beijing will prove to be quite useful for persuading Chinese leaders that Korea intends no harms to China," Han said during a forum at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The U.S. hopes to deploy a THAAD unit to South Korea to better cope with North Korean missile threats, but China has openly raised strong objections, claiming the system could be used against it, despite repeated assurances from Washington that it won't pose any threats to the country.

South Korea said it decided to attend the ceremony as it needs Chinese cooperation in resolving the North Korean nuclear standoff and realizing unification of the divided peninsula. Beijing is considered the only country in the world that has any meaningful influence over the regime in Pyongyang.

"South Korea believes that the best way to maintain peace, harmony and cooperation in the region is to pursue common ground and interests, rather than confrontation and harsh rhetoric," Han said.

"As China's power increases, South Korea's dilemma between Washington and Beijing is likely to deepen but it is hoped that through consistent dialogue and greater efforts to understand each other's position the ROK-US alliance will overcome any major challenges," he said.

Touching on last month's military standoff between the two Koreas, Han said the crisis had a "silver lining" as it not only reminded South Koreans of the importance of the alliance with the U.S., but also led to a breakthrough in the long-stalled relations between the two Koreas.

The standoff was also useful in that the South and the U.S. obtained some information on North Korea's war plans and capabilities exposed in the course of escalating tensions, Han said. Such information will facilitate the upgrading of the allies' joint contingency plan, he said.

Han said he sees hope that the strained relationship between South Korea and Japan has now "reached the bottom ebb and may start improving" after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued a war anniversary statement last month and President Park acknowledged positive elements in the statement.

"The situation both requires and permits Korean leaders to be more courageous and broad-minded and to have a more magnanimous frame of mind in dealing with the past as well as pursuing future relations," Han said.
"Japanese leaders need to undertake a more sincere and deeper reflection of the past and act on the basis of what is really in the best interest of Japan's present and future," he said. (Yonhap)