By Koh Byung-joon
SEOUL, June 1 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. senator has said his country has proceeded with the deployment of a missile defense system in South Korea transparently amid a heated dispute here over its domestic procedures, which has prompted a presidential office probe into top security officials this week.
Senator Dick Durbin also expressed hopes that the procedural issues won't undercut the raison d'etre of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system that is protecting against North Korea's growing military threats.
Durbin, assistant Democratic leader, minority whip and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee for Defense, met with President Moon Jae-in and top defense officials on Wednesday.
"There is no secret about how this has moved forward and there was television coverage on the delivery of the THAAD missile system. So it isn't that we were sneaking in to put this in place," he said in an interview with a small group of reporters right after his meeting with Moon.
"I don't think there has been any effort by the U.S. in any way to mislead the Koreans about what we are proposing."
The meeting came one day after Moon, who took office on May 10, ordered a probe into an "undisclosed" delivery of four additional THAAD launchers.
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