CHINA’S Foreign Ministry said Friday it was strongly opposed to the U.S. deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea and urged the two countries to put a stop to it.

    The missiles’ deployment far exceeds the Korean Peninsula’s defense needs, is not beneficial to maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula and will seriously harm the security of countries including China, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Saturday.

    China had the reasons and rights to question the behind-the-scenes motives of this move, and any excuse for the deployment would be unjustified, he said.

    Wang said the Chinese side had stated its firm stance on this issue, stressing that the United States should not harm other countries’ legitimate security interests with the excuse of so-called security threats.

    The Chinese top diplomat also called on the South Korean side to be cool-headed and think over what the deployment could actually bring for its security, for the realization of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, as well as for the settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue. He urged related parties to act in a cautious and appropriate manner and avoid committing a serious mistake.

    South Korea and the United States said Friday they would deploy an advanced missile defense system in South Korea to counter the threat from nuclear-armed North Korea.

    The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, anti-missile system will be used only as protection against North Korea’s growing nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, South Korea’s Defense Ministry and the U.S. Defense Department said.

    The announcement came a day after the U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for human rights abuses. North Korea called this “a declaration of war” and vowed a tough response.

    A South Korean Defense Ministry official said selection of a site for THAAD could come “within weeks,” and the allies were working to have it operational by the end of 2017.

    It will be deployed to U.S. Forces Korea “to protect alliance military forces,” a joint statement said. “It will be focused solely on North Korean nuclear and missile threats and would not be directed towards any third-party nations,” the statement said.

    Russia is also opposed to the system. Its foreign ministry will take the deployment into account in Moscow’s military planning, Interfax news agency quoted it as saying Friday.

    THAAD is designed to defend against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles by intercepting them high in the Earth’s atmosphere, or outside it. The United States already has a THAAD system in Guam.

    (SD-Xinhua)