"This system is a defensive system that will help protect South Korea from ballistic missile attacks from North Korea", Harris told the House committee during Wednesday's public hearing.
"We agreed to warn North Korea to stop any additional strategic provocation and take intolerably strong punitive measures against Pyongyang if it goes ahead with such provocations", Kim Hong-kyun told reporters following his meeting with Joseph Yun of the USA and Japan's Kenji Kanasugi. Moon's closest competitor, Ahn Cheol-soo, has voiced support for THAAD deployment, but has also said he would be willing to ask the U.S.to withdraw the system of China agrees to aggressively pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.
The exercise took place as a US guided-missile submarine arrived in South Korea and envoys from the United States, Japan and South Korea met in Tokyo to discuss the growing threat posed by North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles program.
Crowds in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, laid flowers and paid respects at giant statues of the country's former leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, one day after the minister of defense reiterated that the North was ready to use pre-emptive strikes or any measures it deems necessary to defend itself against "U.S. imperialists".
South Korean defence ministry officials and USA military officials could not immediately be reached for confirmation.
A THAAD battery, including the one now being installed in southern South Korea, consists of six truck-mounted launchers that can fire up to 48 interceptor missiles.
Hours before the admiral spoke to members of Congress, parts of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system began the trip to their deployment site in a rural part of South Korea.
South Korea's Ministry of Defense said in a release that the two countries have put out efforts to secure swift operational management capability of the THAAD system to prepare against North Korea's increasing nuclear and missile threat.The test on environmental impact and facility construction will be carried out as planned so that the missile shield would be in operational posture by the year-end, it said. Before becoming fully operational, the THAAD system will undergo several localization tests.
Harris testified before a pair of Trump administration briefings on the North Korea crisis.
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Unspecified parts of the THAAD defense system also were installed. The fast installation raised suspicion that Washington could have pushed ahead with the deployment ahead of May 9 presidential election, with the liberal candidate opposing to the THAAD deployment leading the polls.
President Donald Trump has sent more US military assets to the region in a show of force while leaning on China to exert economic pressure on its wayward ally.
The Soseong-ri villagers demanded an immediate removal of the THAAD, which was installed without any consent from residents and parliamentary discussions, vowing to continue their anti-THAAD rallies which have lasted since the announcement in July past year of the THAAD deployment decision.
The United States is sending the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group to waters off the Korean peninsula, where it will join the USS Michigan, a nuclear submarine that docked in South Korea on Tuesday. He has vowed to prevent North Korea from being able to hit the United States with a nuclear missile.
Harris' testimony comes ahead of two congressional briefings on North Korea Wednesday afternoon, where Defense Secretary James Mattis, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats will brief the full House and Senate. "It is just like sweeping the sea with a broom", the North's KCNA cited a foreign ministry spokesman as saying.
A targeted attack to take out North Korea's growing nuclear weapons program could spark a wider war on the Korean peninsula, lawmakers and experts on North Korea have warned.
But he said, "if there's a war today, it's over there".
Seoul says North Korea conducted huge live-fire drills Tuesday.
The firing drill came instead of a nuclear test or the launch of a long-range missile as feared amid pressure from the United States and China, its sole major ally which has been irritated by Pyongyang's weapons development.
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