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The board of an affiliate of South Korea's Lotte Group approved a deal on Monday to enable authorities to install controversial US system to be installed, the defence ministry said. But China objects to the deployment in South Korea of the THAAD, which has a powerful radar capable of penetrating Chinese territory. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang repeated China's opposition it on Monday, saying it would not help peace and stability of the Korean peninsula, and called on South Korea and the United States not go to go ahead.

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China will take necessary steps to protect its security interests, Geng said, without giving details. He told a daily news briefing in Beijing: ”All the consequences of that are the responsibility of South Korea and the United States.” Chinese state media recently warned the Lotte Group, South Korea's fifth-largest conglomerate, that it would face severe consequences if it allowed its land to be used for the missile system.

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Seoul decided last year to deploy the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system in response to the North Korean missile threat, on land that is part of a golf course owned by Lotte in the Seongju region, southeast of Seoul. The board of unlisted Lotte International Co Ltd approved the deal with the government, and the ministry and Lotte were due to sign an agreement as early as Tuesday, the ministry said. Lotte could not be immediately reached for comment.

REUTERS THAAD has a powerful radar capable of penetrating Chinese territory

South Korea has said it and the United States aim to make the system operational by the end of the year. A South Korean military official said last week the deployment could be completed by August. The Lotte Group said on February 8 Chinese authorities had stopped construction at a multi-billion dollar real estate project in China after a fire inspection, adding to concern in South Korea about damage to commercial relations with the world's second-largest economy.