US deploying missile defense system to S. Korea after N. Korea fires missiles

WASHINGTON — The United States is deploying an advanced anti-missile defense system to South Korea as part of steps to bolster its ability to defend against North Korean ballistic missiles, the White House said Monday.

North Korea’s launching of four ballistic missiles into the sea off Japan’s northwest earlier on Monday is consistent with its history of “provocative behavior” and the United States stands with its allies against the threat, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters.

“The Trump administration is taking steps to enhance our ability to defend against North Korea’s ballistic missiles such as through the deployment of a THAAD battery to South Korea,” he said.

North Korea on Monday fired four banned ballistic missiles that flew about 620 miles on average, with three of them landing in waters that Japan claims as its exclusive economic zone, South Korean and Japanese officials said.

Pyongyang has test-launched a series of missiles of various ranges in recent months, including a new intermediate-range missile in February; it also conducted two nuclear tests last year. The ramped-up tests come as leader Kim Jong Un pushes for a nuclear and missile program that can deter what he calls U.S. and South Korean hostility toward the North.

There have been widespread worries that the North will conduct an ICBM test that, when perfected, could in theory reach the U.S. mainland. Washington would consider such a capability a major threat.

U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster and his South Korean counterpart Kim Kwan-jin talked by phone after the missile firings. The two condemned the launches and agreed to boost cooperation to get the North to face more effective sanctions and pressure, according to South Korea’s presidential office.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said three missiles landed in the 200-nautical-mile offshore area where Tokyo has sovereign rights for exploring and exploiting resources. He said a fourth missile fell “near” Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

It’s the third time North Korean missiles have fallen in the Japanese zone, beginning last August. Japanese leaders see the launches into nearby waters as a growing threat.

European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said the launches were “in utter disregard” of several U.N. resolutions and that the EU would consult with Japan and international partners on how to react. She also said North Korea needed to immediately halt plans for more such missile launches.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that Monday’s launches were made from the Tongchang-ri area in North Phyongan province. The area is the home of the North’s Sohae rocket launch site where it has conducted prohibited long-range rocket launches in recent years.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, “We remain prepared — and will continue to take steps to increase our readiness — to defend ourselves and our allies from attack, and are prepared to use the full range of capabilities at our disposal against this growing threat.”

Seoul and Washington call their military drills on the Korean Peninsula, which remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty, defensive and routine.

The North hates the military drills, which run until late April and which analysts say force its impoverished military to respond with expensive deployments and drills of their own. An unidentified spokesman for the North’s General Staff of the Korean People’s Army said last week that Pyongyang’s reaction to the southern drills would be the toughest ever but didn’t elaborate.

The United States has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea, and 50,000 in Japan, as a deterrent against a potential aggression from the North.