South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group will close the transaction with the Korean defense ministry by the end of the month to hand over its 18-hole golf course in mountains above a southeastern rural area in the Seongju county in southern Korea, to host a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery regardless of intimidating actions from Chinese authorities.

“Given the gravity of national security threat (from North Korea with its advance and saber-rattling with its nuclear and missile weapons), we cannot backtrack on our promise (to yield site for the THAAD installation)," said a Lotte Group official on Monday.

Lotte International that owns Lotte Skyhill Country Club will hold a board meeting within the month to approve the transaction. Moon Sang-kyun, a defense ministry spokesman during a regular briefing held on the same day, also confirmed a deal was possible within the month.

The golf course was tapped by the best alternative location by U.S. and Korean officials after the original choice an artillery base in the Seongju County was strongly protested by resident due to its proximity to a farming community. Although in the same county, the golf course is nested in high mountains and remote from a residential neighborhood. The defense ministry would be handing over a military site in Namyangju of Gyeonggi Province to Lotte in exchange for the golf club.

An earlier board meeting failed to arrive at a decision, but officials denied Lotte was having second thoughts on the deal.

Lotte came under a range of administrative probes by Chinese authorities after one of its lands were chosen to host the powerful U.S. missile system Beijing strongly protests in fear of its military infrastructure falling under U.S. surveillance.

Seoul and Washington authorities reportedly have been accelerating the plan for installing the battery amid escalating tensions in the region following last week’s missile test and threat by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in his New Year’s address of being in the final stage of firing a long-range missile carrying nuclear warhead and capable of reaching U.S. territory.

By Sohn Il-seon and Ahn Doo-won

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]