On Monday, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth traveled to the border between North and South Korea, marking the first visit by a U.S. defense secretary in eight years.
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AF reports: South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Kyu-bok accompanied Hegseth to Panmunjom, where soldiers from the two Koreas stand face-to-face. The two ministers first visited a hill known as Observation Post Ouellette.
According to a statement from Seoul’s defense ministry, Ahn and Hegseth “reaffirmed the strong combined defense posture and close cooperation between South Korea and the US.”
Hegseth’s visit follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated overtures to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his Asia tour last week, which went unanswered by Pyongyang.
Trump last met with Kim during his first term in office, when he traveled to Panmunjom in June 2019.
Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in North Korea when he briefly crossed the frontier before returning with Kim for a bilateral meeting.
Prior to Trump’s visit, his defense chief, James Mattis, went to the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas in October 2017.