U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work stands by comments he made about a possible deployment of a THAAD missile defense battery to South Korea, his office said Wednesday, a day after Seoul‘s defense ministry refuted his remarks.

Work said during a security forum Tuesday that the U.S. is carefully considering whether or not to put a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system in South Korea while working with the government in Seoul on the issue.