Tokyo ? Amid heightened concerns about North Korean missiles in the region, the United States and Japan will begin deploying advanced, American-made surface-to-air missile defense systems on Japanese soil next month, officials from both countries announced Thursday.

The Pentagon will start relocation in August of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 system – the ballistic missile interceptors known as PAC-3 – along with 600 specially-trained troops from Fort Bliss, Texas, to a U.S. base in southern Japan.

Japanese officials also said they would deploy the same PAC-3 system on their own bases for the first time by March. A Defense Ministry official said the rollout would begin at Iruma Base just west of Tokyo, spreading to three other nearby bases by 2007.

It marks the latest step by Japan and the United States in their plan to co-develop a broad land, sea and air-based defense network to contain the military might of North Korea.