China's "misperception" about the THAAD missile defense system would be dispelled if it hears expert explanations that the U.S. has offered to provide about the system, a U.S. State Department official said Monday.

"We've offered to send subject matter experts to Beijing to brief both the People's Liberation Army and government and party officials about what THAAD is," Mark Lambert, the department's Korea director, said during a discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"I think there is a lot of misperception that THAAD is aimed at China and much of that could be alleviated if Chinese officials would agree to meet with our experts," he said. "Unfortunately to date, officials in Beijing have been unwilling to meet with our officials and hear that."

Lambert said that the radars associated with THAAD are "pointed northeast towards North Korea, not towards Xinjiang," China, and that THAAD interceptors "would not be a mechanism that would do away with China's nuclear deterrent."

China has expressed strong opposition to the potential deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense unit in South Korea, arguing that the system can be used against it, despite repeated assurances from Washington that the system is aimed only at deterring North Korean threats.

South Korea and the U.S. jointly announced in February, shortly after North Korea's long-range missile test, that they would begin official discussions about the possible deployment of a THAAD battery to better defend against nuclear and missile threats from the North.

Recalling his time in Beijing when tensions were high in U.S.-China relations over military incidents in 2001 and 2009, known as "EP-3 Crisis" and "Impeccable Crisis," respectively, Lambert said that Chinese officials have shown a tendency of not wanting to have dialogue when it was most needed.

"I'm hoping that our bilateral decision to protect Koreans and Americans would not affect our ability to work effectively with Beijing on areas of mutual concern," he said. "We have areas of mutual concern. Those areas exist irrespective of our views on THAAD. I think it's time for thinking a little bit more creatively." (Yonhap)