The United States military has confirmed its controversial THAAD anti-missile system is already operational in South Korea.
In a statement on Monday, US Forces Korea confirmed that "the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is operational and has the ability to intercept North Korean missiles and defend the Republic of the Korea."
The brief announcement, signed by Colonel Richard Manning, comes barely a week after the US began installing the THAAD system at a former golf course in Seongju County, around 200 kilometres southeast of Seoul.
The deployment of the system, to which South Korea and the US agreed in July 2016, comes in response to a record number of missile tests conducted by North Korea in 2016, including a space rocket launch, which the international community considered a disguised ballistic missile test.
