SEOUL - Moon Jae-in, president of the Republic of Korea, departed for Washington on Wednesday for his first meeting with US President Donald Trump as pressure mounted on his administration to find ways of resolving the crisis over the deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile shield.

Moon, who took office on May 10, was scheduled to discuss various issues with his US counterpart, ranging from THAAD to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

He will have dinner with Trump on Thursday, before holding official talks and announcing a joint declaration the following day, according to the presidential Blue House.

Activists from 14 ROK advocacy groups held a news conference in the Gwanghwamun Square near the US embassy in Seoul on Wednesday, demanding the reversal of the THAAD deployment. They also called for efforts to find ways to bring peace to the peninsula.

They urged Moon and Trump to reconsider the THAAD deployment because they said the defense system was installed without proper procedures such as the environment impact assessment.

About two weeks before the presidential election on May 9, two THAAD mobile launchers were transported to a golf course at Soseong-ri village in Seongju county, North Gyeongsang province.

Four more launchers were delivered to a US military base near the golf course, but it was not reported to Moon who has ordered a thorough investigation into the unreported delivery.

In addition, the activists said, the deployment has in fact encouraged the DPRK to advance its nuclear and missile capabilities. THAAD proponents had claimed the installation would weaken the DPRK's resolve to pursue nuclear development.

The THAAD system is incapable of intercepting DPRK missiles, according to the activists. It is designed to shoot down missiles at an altitude of 40-150 kilometers, but they say most of the DPRK's missiles targeting South Korea fly at an altitude of less than 40 km.

The THAAD, the activists said, has speeded up the introduction of a new "Cold War" in Northeast Asia as the deployment brings strong oppositions from neighboring countries, including China and Russia.

Neighbors' concerns

They argue that the system's radars can peer deep into China and Russia, damaging the security interests of the two countries and boosting an arms race in the region.

Residents and peace activists have held a candlelit rally every night in the past year since Seoul and Washington announced their joint decision in July to deploy one THAAD battery in the ROK.

The activists also demanded that the two leaders seek ways of easing tensions in the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and negotiations rather than sanctions and pressure.

To defuse military tensions, they said, Moon and Trump should mull the scaling down of the US-ROK joint annual military exercises and the US strategic military assets deployment in return for the freezing of the DPRK's nuclear and missile programs.

Xinhua