U.S. deployment of anti-missile system in South Korea angers China

The missile launches came amid annual military drills involving US and South Korean armed forces that the North regards as a rehearsal to an invasion.

North Korea test-launched a new intermediate-range missile in February and conducted two nuclear tests previous year.

Fearing that THAAD’s advanced radar could be used to spy deep into its territory, China has stepped up its retaliatory measures against South Korea.

“It is deeply frustrating that North Korea continues to show such disregard for UN Security Council resolutions, which prohibit all such missile launches”.

There were no immediate reports of damage to ships or aircraft in the area, Japan’s top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference in Tokyo, calling the latest missile launch a “grave threat to national security”.

Seoul did not notify China of the decision in advance, the ministry added, highlighting that the deployment was aimed at “solely” defending South Korea against North Korea’s missile and nuclear threats.

Reclusive North Korea, which has carried out a series of nuclear and missile tests in defiance of United Nations resolutions, issued a typically robust statement on state news agency KCNA after the missile launches.

Wang proposed that the United States and South Korea suspend the exercises in exchange for North Korea’s suspension of missile launches.

Pyongyang blasted at least four missiles across the ocean towards Japan on Monday, three of them splashing down into waters within Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

“The launches are consistent with North Korea’s long history of provocative behavior”.

There was a “low chance” the projectiles were intercontinental ballistic missiles, he said.

“China’s suggestion is, as a first step, for North Korea to suspend nuclear activity, and for the USA and South Korea to also suspend large-scale military drills”, Wang said at his annual news conference on the sidelines of the meeting of China’s parliament in Beijing.

The developments come as South Korea is consumed by turmoil over the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, whose administration agreed to the Thaad deployment.

The United States withdrew nuclear weapons from South Korea in 1991 before the rival Koreas signed a declaration on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.North Korea has since walked away from the agreement, citing the threat of invasion by the United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Beijing on March 18 and coordinate the timing of a first meeting between Xi and U.S. President Donald Trump, a senior U.S. diplomat said Tuesday.