U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and South Korea’s Minister of National Defense Han Min-koo have agreed to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery “within this year,” South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced on Friday.

The U.S. and the South agreed that it is of the “foremost importance” to maintain strong, combined defense readiness and discussed “North Korea’s recent nuclear and missile threats and possible provocations.”

“[Both] agreed to push ahead as scheduled to deploy the THAAD system of United States Forces Korea (USFK) within this year as a defense system only against North Korea’s missile threats,” the MND