United States Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Frank Rose is visiting Seoul this week to meet his South Korean counterparts and discuss a wide variety of regional security issues.

Missile defence is reportedly one of these issues, once again stirring up the contentious topic of US’ deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) on the Korean Peninsula.

In April, North Korea had greeted US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter’s inaugural visit to East Asia by test launching two short-range, surface-to-surface missiles. This prompted pundits and analysts to turn their attention to THAAD to counter North Korea’s growing ballistic missile capabilities.

… Harry H. Sa is a research analyst with the United States programme at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.