A decision by the United States and South Korea to deploy an advanced anti-missile defense system is aimed at defending against North Korea’s missile threat and does not threaten China, a senior US officer said in Beijing on Tuesday.
The United States has repeatedly tried to rebuff anger from China about Seoul’s move to host a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense unit with the US military, Reuters reported.
Mark A. Milley, Chief of Staff of the US Army, told his People’s Liberation Army counterpart Li Zuocheng that THAAD was a defensive measure, the US Army said in a statement released by the US Embassy in Beijing.
THAAD “is a defensive measure to protect South Koreans and Americans from the North Korean ballistic missile threat and is not a threat in any way to China”, the statement paraphrased Milley as saying.
