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U.S. HoUSe paSSeS aSia miSSile defenSe bill The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill calling on the Pentagon to bolster trilateral missile defense cooper - ation with South Korea and Japan against threats from Pyongyang, amid ongoing suspense over whether Seoul will join a Washington-led anti-missile defense shield. The bill called on the secretary of de- fense to “conduct an assessment to iden- tify opportunities for increasing missile defense cooperation” among the three countries, especially “to evaluate options for enhanced short-range missile, rocket and artillery defense capabilities to ad- dress threats from the Korean Peninsula.” The United States is pushing for the de- ployment of its Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense advanced anti-missile de- fense system on the Korean Peninsula, which is designed to intercept any mis - siles from North Korea. But Seoul has been hesitant to join the Washington-led THAAD, which could sour its relationship with China and Russia, and has opted to push development of its own missile shield, the Korea Air and Missile Defense, which has a more limited deterrence range. According to the “National Defense Au- thorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015,” the Pentagon needs to evaluate the utility of short-range missile defense and coun- ter-rocket, artillery, and mortar system capabilities on Korea. The bill added that increased missile defense cooperation among Seoul, Wash - ington and Tokyo “would enhance the security of allies of the United States in Northeast Asia,” increase the defense of U.S. forward-based forces, and enhance the protection of Washington from Pyong- yang’s threats. Areas to increase trilateral missile de- fense cooperation include more informa- tion sharing, systems integration and joint operations, the bill said. The Korean government passed a budget bill allocating 11.14 trillion won to improve defense capabilities next year, namely the “Kill Chain” capacity, designed to pre-emptively strike North Korea’s nu - clear and missile facilities, and the Korea Air and Missile Defense, an independent, low-tier missile shield. Both are key mili- tary capabilities for its independent coun- tering of the North’s nuclear and missile threats. China and Russia have expressed op - position to the deployment of the U.S.- led THAAD battery in Korea, claiming it is against their security interests and may be used as a method of surveillance against them. Beijing and Moscow may be especially sensitive to the AN/TPY-2, a high-reso - lution, rapidly deployable X-Band radar designed to detect, track and identify bal- listic missile threats at long distances and at very high altitudes, including space, for the THAAD system. This can put China and Russia in range. The United States and Japan have been working closely on defense cooperation as they upgrade their bilateral defense pact, and Washington is looking to deploy a second AN/TPY-2 radar to Japan. Russia’s defense industry is reported to be developing its own missile defense sys- tems similar to the U.S. THAAD and long- range ballistic missile shield. all stories are culled with consent from Korea Joongang daily’s website and edited by Groove Korea for length and clarity. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Groove Korea. — ed. n a T i o n a l n e w Swith January 2015 / www.koreajoongangdaily.com KT Told To pay damaGeS To 100 clienTS for daTa leaK The Seoul Central District Court last month ordered KT to compensate 100 clients 100,000 won each for causing “psychological pain” in 2012, when the personal information of 8.7 million cli- ents of the nation’s second-largest mobile carrier was leaked by hackers. “For five months, KT failed in its duty to take caution for blocking the leak of per- sonal information,” the judge said. “(The clients’) resident registration numbers—very crucial personal data that can’t be changed—were leaked,” the judge continued, adding that the private information “might further be used for telemarketing purposes.” “There’s a high possibility that the vic- tims will receive spam messages or calls,” the judge said. “KT must compensate for that psychological pain.” The case dates back to July 2012, when a cyber-terror response team at the Na- tional Police Agency said it had arrested two hackers for penetrating KT’s cus- tomer database and selling data from 8.7 million mobile phone subscribers from February that year. Police officers at that time stated that the hackers earned at least 1 billion won from selling the data to telemarketers, who then called customers to sell their services. Seven other KT store employees were apprehended for their involvement in the plot. KT immediately apologized and vowed to strengthen its internal security system, but failed to take the initiative for com- pensation measures. The Seoul Central District Court in Au- gust ruled in favor of some 28,000 KT users, ordering the mobile carrier to pay each customer 100,000 won for the same 2012 data leak. However, KT promptly appealed the case, saying that the attack was “inev - itable” and that it will make up for it by adopting sufficient precautionary meas- ures.