Seoul (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – According to a senior U.S. defence official, U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth will visit the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas and meet South Korean President Lee Jae Myung while in the Asian nation next week, Korean media reported.
Hegseth will engage in a two-day visit to South Korea starting next Monday, and this will be his first trip to the country since taking office early this year. Korea is the final part of Hegseth’s Asia swing that includes stops in Japan, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
Which key meetings will Hegseth attend in Seoul?
U.S. Defence Secretary and South Korean Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back of Seoul plan to visit the Joint Security Area in the DMZ and meet with Korean and US troops stationed there upon arrival in Korea, the official briefed journalists travelling with Hegseth during a press briefing.
He will also visit Camp Humphreys, a large U.S. military facility in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, to thank members of the service and members of their families.
The crux of his visit to South Korea is the annual defence dialogue between the two nations, or Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), which is scheduled to begin at the Ministry of Defence in Seoul on Nov. 4. Other meetings with Lee are also expected to take place during his visit to Seoul.
“These discussions will further advance consultations on alliance modernisation, including defence spending, and the Republic of Korea assuming the primary responsibility for the alliance’s conventional defence against North Korea,”
the official said.
After the SCM, the US official and Ahn will announce an expansion of defence industrial cooperation, the official said.
What topics will dominate the upcoming security consultative meeting?
As reported, at the time of the defence discussions, both sides are expected to address numerous pending issues, including Seoul’s desire to reassert wartime operational control and Washington’s desire for the Asian ally to increase its defence spending and contribute more to regional security in their attempt to “modernise” their decades-long alliance.
