South Korea's defence ministry said some elements of THAAD were moved to the site on what had been a golf course in the south of the country.
Asked if Beijing has done enough to curb its neighbour, Gabriel said that the "primary responsibility lies with North Korea". South Korea's Defense Ministry says such worries are groundless and no such issues have been reported at THAAD sites in other countries.
The US and ally South Korea say its deployment, agreed past year, is meant to guard against missile threats from the nuclear-armed North.
On Wednesday, South Korea started installing key parts of a contentious USA missile defense system that also has sparked Chinese and Russian concerns.
China, which has grown increasingly frustrated with North Korea, its ally, and Russian Federation see the system's powerful radars as a security threat.
Beijing/Seoul: China on Thursday welcomed an apparently softer tone by the United States on the North Korean nuclear and missile crisis but stressed its opposition to a U.S. missile defence system being deployed in South Korea. "China will resolutely take necessary steps to defend its interests", Geng warned.
China is North Korea's sole major ally and its support is seen as crucial to USA -led efforts to rein in Pyongyang.
North Korea "is clearly in a position to threaten Hawaii today" with missiles, he said, calling for the United States to send more submarines and radar systems to Hawaii, and to build missile interceptors there to meet the threats from North Korea and in increasingly powerful China and Russian Federation.
"There's a sense in Seoul that THAAD deployment has been rushed based on the timetable of South Korea's presidential election, rather than North Korea's threats", said John Delury, a professor of global relations at Yonsei University in Seoul.
The liberal politician expected to win South Korea's election, Moon Jae-in, has called for a delay in the deployment, saying the new administration should make a decision after gathering public opinion and more talks with Washington.
"Any deployment that completely ignores appropriate processes must be suspended now, and the final decision should be made after consultation between South Korea and the USA", he said.
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Images showed protesters hurling water bottles at the vehicles, while police block them. Kim said about 200 protesters, mostly residents in two towns near the battery site, rallied overnight and would remain near the location.
The rhetoric between North Korea and the US has risen in recent weeks.
At the same time, the Trump administration remains open to negotiations for ridding North Korea of nuclear weapons, it said. A rapid tempo of North Korean weapons testing in the past year has pushed Kim Jong Un's authoritarian nation closer to developing a nuclear-armed missile that could reach the US mainland.
Harris said that the visit of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who made South Korea and Japan his first global trip, and Vice President Mike Pence sends the "right signal" to allies in the region.
It is likely that rather than providing a tool that can shoot down missiles heading toward Japan, the U.S., South Korea, Canada or anywhere else within range, the four ships will act as a heavily-armed deterrent.
U.S. defence leaders and other top officials were due to give a classified briefing on North Korea to all senators in an unusual meeting at the White House.
On Friday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will chair a special meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
North Korea's foreign ministry called U.S. attempts to make Pyongyang give up its nuclear weapons through military threats and sanctions "a wild dream" and like "sweeping the sea with a broom". "It is just like sweeping the sea with a broom", the North's KCNA cited a foreign ministry spokesman as saying.
Still, Pentagon officials have stressed to Trump there are no easy options for military interventions in North Korea.
South Korea and the United States agreed on Thursday on "swift punitive measures" against North Korea in the event of further provocation.
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