Minister of the Ministry of National Defense Ahn Gyu-baek and Minister Pete Hegseth of the U.S. Ministry of National Defense (War Department) will visit the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjom together on the 3rd of next month. It will be the first joint visit by the Korean and U.S. defense ministers in eight years since the visit by Minister Song Young-moo and Minister James Mattis in Oct. 2017.
According to the Ministry of National Defense on the 28th, Minister Ahn will visit the JSA with Minister Hegseth, who will be in Korea to attend the 57th Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) to be held in Seoul. An official at the Ministry of National Defense said, "We are coordinating for Minister Hegseth to visit the JSA together." Attention is focusing on the message toward North Korea that the two ministers will deliver during their visit to the JSA.
Earlier, a senior U.S. War Department official said aboard a chartered plane en route to Japan that "Minister Hegseth will begin with a visit to the JSA and then visit major U.S. Forces Korea facilities such as Camp Humphreys," and "will discuss key pending issues such as modernization of the South Korea-U.S. alliance, defense cost-sharing, and the transfer of wartime operational control." Minister Hegseth will stay in Korea from the 3rd to the 4th of next month. Starting on the 4th, he will co-chair the SCM with Minister Ahn. The SCM is the highest-level security meeting that coordinates and consults on major military policy between South Korea and the United States.
The official said, "We are aware of the Lee Jae-myung administration's goal of 'transferring wartime operational control (OPCON) during the term,' and we strongly support Korea taking a more leading role in conventional defense to deter North Korea." The official added, "The SCM is the centerpiece of this trip," and "the two ministers will jointly announce plans to expand defense industry cooperation after the meeting."
Regarding the possibility of reducing U.S. Forces Korea, the official drew a line, saying, "There is nothing to announce at this time." The official emphasized, "Minister Hegseth views the Indo-Pacific as the United States' priority theater of operations and places China deterrence as the top task of the Ministry of National Defense," adding, "Homeland defense and China deterrence are tasks that can be pursued in parallel."