The Terminal High Altitude Air Defense system is an anti-missile battery that was designed to protect the South against North Korea ,but has met with strong opposition. Ahead of the newly elected president’s victory, the United States moved the THAAD battery to South Korea last month. Before he won the elections, two launchers were already in South Korea but four more launchers had been moved into the country without his knowledge.

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A Defense Ministry official was accused by Moon’s office of being privy to the information that four more launchers were brought into the country, and deliberately omitting the  But Moon’s office accused an official in the Defense Ministry of deliberately failing to tell the president’s staff about the arrival of the final four launchers. Moon called the omission incident “very shocking” and ordered an investigation. A deputy defense minister was suspended as a result.

An official from the president’s office Wednesday said that the missile defense system would remain frozen. “We are not saying the two launchers and other equipment that has already been deployed should be withdrawn. But those that have yet to be deployed will have to wait,” a senior official told reporters in Seoul.

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Yonhap news agency reported that the unnamed official said that the assessment could take between a year to two, taking into consideration a similar evaluation for a THAAD deployment in Guam took 23 months. But there was no hurry to get the system up and running, given that North Korea had been a threat to the South for years, the official said.