[Yonhap News Photo]
Watched by North Korean border guards at a close range, U.S. and South Korean defense chiefs inspected the scene of tense confrontation across the world's last Cold War frontier, demonstrating their strong will to fight back against Pyongyang's nuclear and missile threats.
U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, escorted by South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo, walked into a joint security area in the truce village of Panmunjom in the middle of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) which bisects the Korean peninsula.
Mattis stood together with Song near an imaginary demarcation line and accused North Korea of jeopardizing regional and global security with a series of provocations. "As Secretary of State Tillerson has made clear, our goal is not war but rather the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," the secretary said in a statement.
In a separate statement, Song warned that North Korea would face "strong retaliation" by U.S. and South Korean troops if it uses nuclear weapons and missiles. The event in Panmunjom is aimed at confirming a firm alliance "without a single inch of error", Song said, urging Pyongyang to stop reckless provocations and return to the dialogue table.
U.S. and South Korean defense chiefs are being briefed on North Korea at a guard post inside the demilitarized zone on October 27. [Yonhap News Photo]
Aboard a UH-60 Blak Hawk helicopter, Mattis flew to Panmunjom after he arrived at an air base in Osan south of Seoul to attend an annual military conference between the two allies. Panmunjom, where an armistice accord was signed to end the 1950-53 Korean War, has served as the only point of cross-border contact, with soldiers from both sides on guard at a close range across the borderline.
Mattis also inspected Ouellette, a prominent guard post inside the DMZ. Foreign dignitaries have visited the fortified concrete post to taste a tense mood across the world's last Cold War frontier, and its quest book includes the names of two former U.S. presidents, Bill Clinton in 1993 and Barack Obama in 2012.
Later in Seoul, the secretary paid a courtesy call on South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
The DMZ trip coincided with the start of military talks between South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Jeong Kyeong-doo and his American counterpart Joseph Dunford, prior to the Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) led by Song and Mattis.
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