(SEOUL) U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visited South Korea’s heavily fortified border with the North on Thursday on a trip aimed at bolstering the security alliance with Seoul.
Posted at 6:55 a.m.
North Korea fired two ballistic missiles in the days leading up to its visit, continuing a record slew of weapons tests since the start of the year.
From an observation post atop a steep hill overlooking North Korea, Mme Harris observed the border through binoculars as American and South Korean soldiers pointed out features of the area, including its defenses.
US commitment to South Korea’s defense is ‘unwavering’, she said, assuring Washington and Seoul were ‘aligned’ in their response to the growing threat posed by weapons programs North.
While they both want “a complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula”, she continued, the two allied countries are, in the meantime, “ready to face any eventuality”.
The Vice President also visited the truce village of Panmunjom, where then US President Donald Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2019, and spoke with US soldiers at the Camp Bonifas, a United Nations military post.
His visit to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas could serve as a pretext for a new verbal escalation on the part of Pyongyang.
Speaking aboard a US destroyer at a naval base before departing from Japan, Mme Harris accused Mr. Kim’s regime of threatening regional stability with new missile strikes, and denounced its “illicit weapons program”.
The American vice-president had previously traveled to Japan to attend the state funeral of the assassinated former prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
In Seoul, she met South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, for talks dominated by security issues, with South Korean and US officials warning for months that Pyongyang is preparing to carry out a new nuclear test.
On Wednesday, the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) estimated that this test could take place in October.
According to the NIS, Kim Jong-un will likely choose the period between the next Chinese Communist Party congress on October 16 and the midterm elections in the United States on November 7.
During the meeting, Seoul also raised concerns about a new law signed by US President Joe Biden that removes subsidies for electric cars built outside the United States, affecting South Korean automakers like Hyundai and Kia.
Mme Harris, the first female vice president of the United States, also met with what the White House called “innovative women leaders” from South Korea to discuss issues related to gender equality, a topic she said to have approached Mr. Yoon.
Mr Yoon, who has pledged to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality, has been criticized at home for the lack of women in his government.
Nuclear test ?
North Korea, which is subject to multiple UN sanctions for its weapons programs, generally seeks to maximize the geopolitical impact of its tests by choosing the moment that seems most opportune.
The communist country has tested nuclear weapons six times since 2006. Its last, most powerful test, carried out in 2017 – which Pyongyang said was a hydrogen bomb – had an estimated yield of 250 kilotons.
Under President Yoon, Seoul and Washington have intensified their joint military exercises, which they insist are purely defensive in nature. For its part, North Korea systematically denounces them as a repetition of an invasion.
The two allies are hosting a large-scale joint naval exercise this week seen as a show of force in the face of growing provocations from the North.
Cheong Seong-chang, director of the center for North Korean studies at the Sejong Institute, told AFP to expect Mr Yoon and Mme Harris discuss Pyongyang’s nuclear test response plan.
M’s journeyme Harris represents “an opportunity to strengthen the high-level relations of cooperation and friendship between South Korea and the United States”, he noted.
Seoul on Thursday announced trilateral anti-submarine drills with Tokyo and Washington, the first such drills since 2017, after officials said over the weekend they detected signs that Pyongyang might be planning a launch. ballistic missile test launched from a submarine.