Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth travelled to the border between North and South Korea on Monday, the first time in eight years that a US defence secretary has made such a visit.
South Korean Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back accompanied his US counterpart to Panmunjom, the only place where soldiers from the two Koreas stand face-to-face, after the pair visited a hill known as Observation Post Ouellette.
Ahn and Hegseth “reaffirmed the strong combined defence posture and close cooperation between South Korea and the US,” Seoul’s defence ministry said in a statement.
Hegseth’s visit follows US 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 Kim during his first term in the White House, travelling to Panmunjom in June 2019.
He became the first sitting US 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 defence chief James Mattis went to the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas in October 2017.
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