US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday began his visit to South Korea by touring the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea with his South Korean counterpart, Ahn Gyu-back.
Hegseth and Ahn received a briefing from military officials at Observation Post Ouellette, which is located near the DMZ. They also visited the Panmunjom border village, where the armistice that paused the 1950-1953 Korean War was signed.
This was the first time in eight years that a US Secretary of Defense has made such a visit. According to South Korean news agency Yonhap, Hegseth was expected to meet with Korean and American troops stationed at the DMZ.
The 250-kilometer-long (roughly 150 miles) DMZ serves as a buffer between North and South Korea. The two countries are technically still at war because the Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
The defense chiefs are scheduled to hold the annual Security Consultative Meeting on Tuesday. This is the highest-level forum for discussing the two countries’ military alliance.
On Monday, the two countries’ chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff held their annual meeting to discuss strategic and operational directions for their combined forces. They agreed that the regional security environment is “complex and unstable,” the South Korea’s Defense Ministry said.
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