The former defense minister also brushed aside Pyongyang's latest warning of physical actions, saying that the communist state has "routinely" made menacing remarks against its southern neighbor.

Touching on the concerns that China's vehement opposition to the allies' deployment plan could weaken Beijing's willingness to faithfully enforce U.N. Security Council sanctions on Pyongyang, Kim stressed that "the sanction issue has nothing to do with THAAD."

"(The Seoul government) is trying to explain (its position over THAAD) to China and persuade Beijing to believe that (the plan to deploy THAAD) is a self-defense and defensive measure," Kim said, stressing that it is "inappropriate to meddle in a self-defense measure."

Kim also pointed out that although the THAAD battery will be a company-level unit, it would bear a "significant meaning" in terms of countering the North's nuclear threats.

Last week, Seoul and Washington announced that they had reached an agreement to deploy a THAAD battery here to better cope with Pyongyang's nuclear and missile threats.

THAAD, a core part of America's multilayered missile defense program, is designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles at altitudes of 40 to 150 kilometers during the terminal phase of flight after detecting the missiles with a land-based radar system.

A THAAD battery consists of six truck-mounted launchers, 48 interceptors (eight per launcher), a fire control and communications unit, and an AN/TPY-2 radar. (Yonhap)