U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was referring to "internal U.S. discussions" when he said during a visit to South Korea earlier this week that talks are under way about the THAAD missile defense system, his department said Wednesday.
  

Kerry made the remark during a meeting Monday with U.S. service personnel stationed in South Korea. Speaking of how provocative and unpredictable North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is, Kerry said that is "why we're talking about THAAD."
  

Kerry's remark rekindled intense media attention on the sensitive topic because his statement appeared to contrast with long-running assertions by Seoul and Washington that the two sides have never held any formal consultations on the issue.
  

"I was there with him on that trip. He was referring to internal U.S. discussions. Our position on this hasn't changed. It wasn't a topic of conversation with the South Korean authority," State Department acting spokeswoman Marie Harf said at a regular briefing.
  

The U.S. wants to deploy a THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missile interceptor battery to South Korea, where some 28,500 American troops are stationed, to better defend against ever-growing threats from North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear programs.
  

But the issue has become one of the most sensitive military and diplomatic issues in South Korea because China and Russia see a potential THAAD deployment as a threat to their security interests and have increased pressure on Seoul to reject such a deployment.
  

Meanwhile, Harf said that North Korea's abrupt decision to disallow U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from visiting an inter-Korean industrial park in the communist nation is in line with Pyongyang's refusal of high-level diplomatic outreaches.
  

Ban had been scheduled to visit the Kaesong Industrial Complex just north of the inter-Korean border on Thursday to meet with South Korean businesses and North Korean workers inside the factory park, a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
  

But Ban said in Seoul on Wednesday that the North reversed the decision to allow his visit.
  

North Korean leader "Kim Jong-un has a pattern of refusing these high-level diplomatic meetings with people who are trying to reach out to see if there's some way to get North Korea back to a diplomatic process," Harf said. "I think this is just the latest in a line of what we've seen coming out of North Korea."
  

Ban had announced the planned visit during the World Education Forum in Seoul on Tuesday. The trip would have made him the first U.N. chief to visit the complex since its launch in 2004. He would also have been the first U.N. chief to visit North Korea in more than 20 years. (Yonhap)