The long-scheduled tests in the Pacific are part of the US military's overall ballistic missile defense program to defend against North Korean or Iranian threats - but are, for now at least, aimed at ensuring the US can defend against a threat from North Korea, US defense officials said.
That's according to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who was speaking at an event in Seoul on Tuesday hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce, his last stop in the country.
He also warned the reclusive North, which has conducted a series of missile and nuclear tests in defiance of United Nations sanctions, that the "era of strategic patience" was over.
"While all options are on the table", Pence said, "President Trump is determined to work closely with Japan, with South Korea, with all our allies in the region, and with China" to resolve the problem. "We are with you 100%", he said.
South Korea, which accuses China or discriminating against some South Korean companies working in China, and the United States say the sole goal of THAAD is to guard against North Korean missiles.
"China and the United States and South Korea, Japan, we all share that same interest".
North Korea's vice foreign minister Han Song Ryol told BBC that missiles will be tested weekly.
"The Trump administration has explicitly rejected President Obama's approach of strategic patience because that led to a stalemate, during which time North Korea's illegal missile and nuclear program accelerated", she told AM. Pyongyang, meanwhile, has continued to say that it will respond to any aggression by the U.S. with a nuclear attack.
But North Korea used Chinese-made trucks to display missiles at the military parade on Saturday, according to photographs, underlining the difficulty in enforcing United Nations sanctions.
"If the U.S. is planning a military attack against us we will react with a nuclear pre-emptive strike by our own style and method", Han said. Pressure on North Korea is crucial, he said.
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Sin Hong-chol, North Korea's deputy foreign minister, told Al Jazeera that Donald Trump's administration "should look at the world with open eyes".
The unannounced visit at the start of Pence's 10-day trip to Asia was a USA show of force that allowed him to gaze at North Korean soldiers from afar and stare directly across a border marked by razor wire.
Pence said Washington will assess Japan's complicated situation against Pyongyang's continued missile launches.
The missile exploded nearly immediately after takeoff, just hours before Pence arrived in South Korea.
A Japanese official says a difference in approach remains with the USA despite an agreement on a framework for new bilateral economic talks. It featured a senior official, Choe Ryong Hae, warning of "all-out war" if North Korea is attacked.
"I don't think that you're going to see the President drawing red lines in the sand, but I think that the action that he took in Syria shows that, when appropriate, this president will take decisive action", he said He also said he expected China to play a "much more active role with respect to North Korea, both politically and economically".
The North, which is intent on developing a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland United States, defied worldwide pressure Sunday with a test that failed immediately after launch.
Meanwhile Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi made a new appeal for calm on the Korean Peninsula and says he believed the United States would prefer a diplomatic resolution to the stand-off.
"In order to strengthen the way we deal with the North Korean issue, we will convey our view and conduct policy consultation to make sure that we are on the same page", Japanese chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday.
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