SEOUL: US troops began delivering a missile defense system that has infuriated China to a deployment site in South Korea on Wednesday, amid heightened tensions over the North’s nuclear ambitions. The US and ally South Korea say its deployment, agreed last year, is intended to guard against missile threats from the nuclear-armed North. It has imposed a host of measures seen as economic retaliation against the South, including a ban on tour groups. Chinese President Xi Jinping called Monday for “restraint” regarding North Korea in a telephone conversation with Trump. US defence leaders and other top officials are to give a classified briefing on North Korea to all senators in an unusual meeting at the White House later Wednesday.

Source: Manila Times April 26, 2017 04:07 UTC