China on Monday told the Republic of Korea (ROK) to stop the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

The new ROK defense minister has said the deployment process would be accelerated to tackle tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

"THAAD deployment will not help to ease the ROK's security concerns, and will do even less to resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a news briefing.

The THAAD system severely undermines China's strategic security interests and the country demands the ROK consider these security concerns, Hua said.