The Korea Times:
Lotte Group will sign an agreement to provide its golf course in southeastern county Seongju ㅡ in a land swap ㅡ as a site to host a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery despite Beijing’s possible retaliation, officials said Friday.
Lotte International, a Lotte unit owning the golf club, plans to hold a board of directors meeting in mid-February to endorse the deal to swap the Lotte Skyhill Country Club in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province, for military-owned land in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of National Defense said it might have to delay THAAD negotiations with Lotte originally planned to be finished by January, citing the uncertain schedule of the board meeting.
At that time, Lotte Group claimed an appraisal of the military-owned land and legal reviews on the land exchange procedures would take some time.
The delay raised speculation that the retail giant was reluctant to go ahead with the deal because of economic retaliations against its operations in China which has strongly opposed the deployment of the U.S. missile defense unit here.
