(VOVworld)-South Korea said the United States had reaffirmed it would shoulder the cost of deploying the THAAD anti-missile system, days after President Donald Trump said Seoul should pay for the 1 billion USD battery designed to defend against North Korea.

A THAAD launcher (Source: Business Insider)

In a telephone call on Sunday, Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, reassured his South Korean counterpart, Kim Kwan-jin, that the US alliance with South Korea was its top priority in the Asia-Pacific region, the South's presidential office said. The conversation followed another North Korean missile test-launch on Saturday which Washington and Seoul said was unsuccessful, but which drew widespread international condemnation. The THAAD deployment has drawn protests from China, which says the powerful radar that can penetrate its territory will undermine regional security, and from local residents worried they will be a target for North Korean missiles.