MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Han and Mattis agreed in a telephone conversation that the THAAD system would be deployed in 2017 as scheduled, while the parties would maintain full readiness to respond to any threat from North Korea, according to the Yonhap news agency.
In July 2016, Seoul and Washington agreed to deploy the anti-missile system THAAD in South Korea's Seongju County amid growing tensions in the region spurred by North Korea's ballistic and nuclear tests.
In the latest New Year's address to the nation, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country was finalizing preparations for another intercontinental ballistic missile test.
On September 5, 2016, Pyongyang launched three ballistic missiles in the direction of the Sea of Japan. Several days later it conducted a successful test of a nuclear warhead, which is believed to be the fifth and largest blast since Pyongyang began pursuing nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
