China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, told a visiting South Korean envoy on Friday that he hoped South Korea could respect China's major interests and concerns and appropriately differences over the THAAD missile system issue.

Axar.az reports citing Reuters, Yang made the comments in a meeting with Seoul's envoy to China Lee Hae-chan, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

China has been infuriated by the U.S. deployment of an advanced Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system in South Korea, saying it was a threat to its security and would do nothing to ease tension with North Korea.