It took just a few hours to transform Seongju from a sleepy farming village in the South Korean foothills into a symbol of the US military might ranged against North Korea. Once a retreat for amateur golfers , the Lotte Seongju country club is now in the hands of the most powerful military in the world and its South Korean allies. On land where dispirited golfers once cursed a badly sliced drive, work is under way to rush into service a defence system able to locate and destroy North Korean missiles before they threaten the South – or the 28,500 US troops stationed there. Villagers complained about the disruption caused by the arrival of the terminal high-altitude area defense (Thaad) system but the impact has been spread far beyond the bucolic hills of Seongju. Read more
