N Korea Instructs Embassies to Use THAAD in South to Pit China Against US

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry allegedly ordered its diplomats in overseas missions to emphasize the threat of US missiles in Korea to China’s security in a bid to widen the rift between Beijing, Seoul and Washington, South Korean media reported Monday.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — Last month, Seoul and Washington agreed to place Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems in the South with a stated goal of countering Pyongyang.

"North Korea's foreign ministry recently handed out the guidelines to embassies and consulates overseas, in which it defined the THAAD issue as…a threat to the North East Asian region's security," a source in the know told the Yonhap news agency.

According to the source, diplomatic missions were instructed to frame the missile deployment as US military buildup in the region in order to "instigate a confrontation" between the United States, Japan and South Korea on one side and China on the other.

The THAAD system is designed to intercept short, medium and intermediate ballistic missiles at the terminal incoming stage. The announcement of its upcoming deployment was met with criticism from Beijing and Moscow.