South Korea says key parts of a contentious US missile defense system have been installed a day after rival North Korea showed off its military power.
The U.S. says it will only target North Korean missiles, but China and Russian Federation see the system's powerful radars as a security threat. The decision to move on installations ahead of schedule didn't go over well - it was greeted by fierce protests from locals, denounced by the frontrunner in the campaign for the South Korean presidency, and criticized by China, which views the defense system as a potentially destabilizing initiative.
South Korea's defense ministry said elements of THAAD were moved to the deployment site, on what had been a golf course, about 250 km (155 miles) south of the capital, Seoul.
In this photo provided by South Korean Defense Ministry, a South Korean navy sailor watches the destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer during a joint exercises between the United States and South Korea in South Korea's West Sea Tuesday, April 25, 2017. Harry Harris, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing.
"South Korea and the United States have been working to secure an early operational capability of the THAAD system in response to North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile threat", the ministry said in a statement.
The Pentagon says the system is critical to defend South Korea and USA forces against North Korean missiles, and that that is its sole objective.
China and Russian Federation have opposed the defense system, saying it undermines their own security interests.
Daniel Pinkston, an global relations expert at South Korea's Troy University, believes numerous comments made by officials in the region are designed to appease domestic audiences, who can "create a lot of background noise and complicates things at worldwide level", he told VICE News. "China will resolutely take necessary steps to defend its interests", Geng warned.
China is North Korea's sole major ally and is seen as crucial to US -led efforts to rein in its bellicose, isolated neighbor.
According to North Korea, Donald Trump is to blame for the Korean Peninsula being pushed to the brink of nuclear war.
The goal was to have the complete system fully operational by the end of this year but the US and South Korea have publicly stressed the need to speed up the deployment of the technology as tensions have mounted with Pyongyang.
A spokesman for Moon Jae-in said the decision "ignored public opinion and due process" and demanded the deployment be suspended until the next administration was in place and had made its policy decision.
More than 10 protesters were injured during clashes with police and some of them had bone fractures, Kim Jong-kyung, co-head of a group of villagers protesting the THAAD deployment, told Reuters.
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Kim said about 200 protesters rallied overnight and they would keep up their opposition.
A police official in the nearby town of Seongju said police had withdrawn from the area and were not aware of any injuries.
The United States and North Korea have stepped up warnings to each other in recent weeks over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and missiles in defiance of U.N. resolutions.
North Korea conducted live-fire artillery drills and a US guided-missile submarine arrived in South Korea on Tuesday, as the Trump administration prepared an extraordinary White House briefing for senators on the escalating nuclear threat. "But for the North Korean leadership to abandon its nuclear and missile programs, that would mean revolutionary change".
South Korea's navy has said it plans to hold a joint drill with the U.S. strike group late this month. But Harris also stated, "We want to bring Kim Jong Un to his senses, not to his knees".
"The fact remains that China is as responsible for where North Korea is today as North Korea itself", said Harris, adding that 80 percent of the North Korean economy was dependent on China, which the Trump administration has been increasingly leaning on as they seek a diplomatic solution to the current conflict.
North Korea's foreign ministry denounced the planned meeting, saying the United States was "not morally entitled" to force members states to impose sanctions on it.
"It is a wild dream for the U.S.to think of depriving the DPRK of its nuclear deterrent through military threat and sanctions. It is just like sweeping the sea with a broom", it said.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
An unidentified ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the KCNA: "In case a war breaks out on the peninsula, the USA will be held wholly accountable for causing trouble after bringing lots of strategic assets and special warfare means".
Seoul says North Korea conducted huge live-fire drills Tuesday.
Washington has deployed an aircraft carrier strike group to the peninsula amid signs the North could be preparing for a sixth nuclear test.
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