South Korea speeds up US missile defence over North's missile test

Seoul: North Korea's latest intercontinental ballistic missile test has prompted the South to speed up the deployment of a US missile defence system despite strong protests from China, Seoul's defence minister said Saturday.

The US military will also roll out "strategic assets" to the South following the North's missile test late Friday, he said.

Parts of the THAAD defence system were brought into the country under the government of ousted president Park Geun-Hye, but new leader Moon Jae-In suspended deployment of the programme last month, citing the need for a new environmental impact assessment.

"We will soon start consultations on the tentative deployment" of the remaining components of the THAAD battery in response to Pyongyang's most recent test, Defence Minister Song Young-Moo told journalists.

The THAAD battery is composed of six interceptor missile launchers. Two launchers have been tentatively deployed at a golf course-turned-US military base in Seongju County, some 300 kilometres (187.5 miles) south of Seoul.

A senior official at the presidential Blue House said Seoul had also informed Beijing of the decision.

The THAAD deployment has infuriated China, which argues that it will destabilise the region.

Song also said the US will send "strategic assets" to the Korean peninsula and the surrounding area, without providing further details.

Strategic assets normally refer to high-profile weapons systems, such as stealth bombers and aircraft carriers.

The South's defence ministry also released a video of a newly developed ballistic missile which it said was one of the world's "most accurate and powerful" weapons and capable of striking "any target in the North at any time and any place".