China denounced Tuesday the United States' deployment of an advanced anti-missile system in South Korea, and said it would "take the necessary steps to safeguard our own security interests," The New York Times reported.

"The consequences will be shouldered by the United States and South Korea," Geng Shuang, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the Times, also warning both countries should not "go further and further down the wrong road."

The U.S. was responding to North Korea's firing of four missiles Monday into waters off the Japanese coast, which Pyongyang called a drill for striking American bases in Japan. The international community has been on edge as North Korea continues to test missiles amid claims by leader Kim Jong-un his country is close to testing an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Those threats are "far more resilient than many experts thought," the Times reported Sunday, and important enough that former president Barack Obama told President Donald Trump the issue would be the most urgent problem he would face.

Xinhua, China's state-run news agency, said the deployment of Thaad by the U.S. in South Korea would result in an increase of nuclear missiles in the region. The news outlet also criticized North Korea and said it must "face the reality that it can neither thwart Washington and Seoul nor consolidate its security in a breeze with its immature nuclear technology."

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