The US Defense Department said Tuesday the planned deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea will move forward regardless of the political situation in the Asian nation.

"Our THAAD deployment continues. The effort to do that as quickly as possible continues forward, and I'm not aware of any plans to alter that at this point," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said at a briefing in response to a question whether the impeachment or resignation of President Park Geun-hye would affect the deployment.

"Those remain ongoing, and the alliance continues to move forward with that plan," he said.

South Korea and the US decided in July to deploy a THAAD battery to cope with growing missile threats from North Korea. But opposition parties have strongly opposed the decision, arguing that the system isn't effective in defending against the North and its deployment would only seriously sour relations with China.

China has called for scrapping the decision, seeing THAAD, especially its powerful "X-band" radar, as a threat to its nuclear deterrent and other security interests, despite repeated assurances from Washington that the system is designed only to defend against the North.  (Yonhap)