China's foreign ministry said Friday it strongly opposes the decision by South Korea and the United States to deploy an advanced anti-ballistic missile system on South Korean soil.

China expressed "strong discontent and firm opposition" against the two countries' agreement to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system.

"The THAAD system does not help achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and also hurts peace and stability in the region," China's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Beijing warned that if the system is deployed, it will "seriously" impair China and other countries' strategic interests and security balance in Northeast Asia.

China's reaction came as Seoul and Washington announced the deployment of advanced missile defense system here in a bid to counter North Korea's growing nuclear and missile threats. The allies have been engaged in talks for the past five month.

China and Russia have explicitly expressed opposition against the THAAD deployment in South Korea on concerns that the move could hurt their strategic security interests.

Seoul, meanwhile, said that it had already notified China and Russia of its decision to deploy the THAAD missiles on Thursday. (Yonhap)