South Korea has been reviewing whether a U.S. advanced missile-defense system will help boost its defense capabilities against North Korea, a government official said Tuesday.
  

The possible deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery on Korean soil has drawn keen attention here, as the U.S. has expressed such willingness to do so, which has sparked concerns from China and Russia.
  

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said during a meeting with U.S. service personnel stationed here on Monday that the provocative North Korea is "why we are talking about THAAD." It is the first time for the top U.S. diplomat to mention the matter in public, though he did not elaborate.
  

"(The Seoul government) is looking into whether THAAD will be helpful in beefing up our defense capabilities and boosting our effectiveness in military aspects," a senior official said, requesting anonymity.
  

Noting that Seoul does not have any official data on the system's specifications, the official said that the government is reviewing materials on the Internet and the U.S. Army's manuals.
  

"What we are doing is literally done on our own, and it is still true that there have been no official consultations between the allies, no request from the U.S. and no decision made on the matter," he stressed.
  

His comments are in line with what Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of United States Forces Korea, said earlier in the day, that Seoul and Washington have reviewed the matter in a separate fashion.
  

As an integral part of the U.S.-led missile-defense system, THAAD is designed to shoot down short, medium and intermediate ballistic missiles at a higher altitude in their terminal phase using a hit-to-kill method.
  

Speaking at a forum on Tuesday in Seoul, former U.S. defense secretary Chuck Hagel said that THAAD is not an offensive tool, but a defensive one, and it is one of many options to respond to the current crisis that North Korea has caused. (Yonhap)