UPDATE - Seoul ready to 'strongly retaliate' against NKorea

UPDATES LOCATION OF MISSILES

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL (AA) - Seoul's head of national security insisted Wednesday that the military is "ready" to hit back should North Korea go ahead with its threat of a physical response to a new American missile defense system in South Korea.

The United States reached an agreement with the South last week on deploying THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) by the end of next year.

According to local news agency Yonhap, National Security Office chief Kim Kwan-jin told a parliamentary session that "South Korea will strongly retaliate" if provoked by the North.

Still, Kim dismissed Pyongyang's threat as a routine statement -- the kind Seoul and Washington have heard repeatedly.

The security chief also admitted that South Korea has been "trying" to explain to China that the THAAD move is a self-defense measure, amid concerns that Beijing might demonstrate its own dissatisfaction by easing up on sanctions aimed at denuclearizing North Korea.

Meanwhile, Seoul's defense ministry announced Wednesday that the incoming THAAD battery will be positioned in Seongju -- a southeastern location seen as optimal for protecting a large part of the country while potentially appeasing Beijing due to it being further away from China than other considered sites.

Given the sense that Beijing is feeling an overbearing U.S. presence in the region, another Seoul statement -- from the foreign ministry this time -- urged the resolution of an ongoing South China Sea territorial dispute "through peaceful and creative diplomatic efforts."

China is refusing to recognize the Permanent Court of Arbitration's ruling this week in favor of the Philippines -- and Seoul's response was somewhat softer than Washington's insistence hours earlier that the global court's verdict is final and legally binding.