The Korea Local Administration Review

The purpose of this paper is to examine the conflict process on the THAAD(Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) between Ministry of National Defense(MND) and Seongju Gun(SJ) from a negotiation theoretic perspective. We selected four criteria for analysis, three of which are real interests, objective criteria, and creative options considered to be important in win-win negotiations, and the other one is anger-dissolving unique to Korean culture. According to the analysis, first, MND and SJ did not focus on mutual underlying interests, but clung to their own demands or positions. In case of the THAAD Site, they never paid attention to the other party’s interests, namely, damage minimization of SJ and military utility of MND. Second, they did not apply the objective criteria to coordinate their conflicting interests. For example, MND opened the measurements of electromagnetic wave from foreign THAAD sites without considering the SJ’ demand. Third, MND moved the THAAD Site from Seongsan battery to Seongju country club, but failed to dissolve the anger of residents due to the lack of warm-hearted apology and corrective action. Finally, they did not seek creative options to meet their conflicting interests, thereby the conflict still remains unresolved.