During a hearing a before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, Daniel Russel, Assistant Secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, testified that “Given the accelerating pace of North Korea’s missile tests, we intend to deploy on an accelerated basis. I would say as soon as possible.” Russel noted that it is the Department of Defense who officially decided such matters. Commander Gary Ross, a Pentagon spokesman, later stated that the THAAD deployment would be done “as soon as feasible.” The decision to deploy the U.S. missile defense system to the ROK was announced on July 7, 2016.