Minister Ahn Gyu-baek of the Ministry of National Defense and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will visit the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjom together on the 3rd.
A joint visit to the JSA by the Korean and U.S. defense ministers is the first in eight years since the visit by Minister Song Young-moo and Secretary James Mattis in Oct. 2017.
Minister Hegseth will visit Korea for two days starting today to attend the 57th Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) to be held on the 4th. As the first item on the schedule, he will visit the JSA with Minister Ahn.
Attention is also on the message toward North Korea the two ministers will deliver during this visit. Given the mood of the recent Korea-U.S. summit and the Lee Jae-myung administration's North Korea policy stance, some expect a message emphasizing the will for peace and dialogue.
After the JSA visit, Minister Hegseth plans to visit Camp Humphreys, the U.S. Forces Korea base in Pyeongtaek. The next day, he will attend the SCM meeting with Minister Ahn.
The SCM is the highest-level annual bilateral meeting in the defense field of Korea and the United States to consult and coordinate major military policies. A range of agenda items are expected to be discussed, including nuclear-powered submarines, the transfer of wartime operational control, and defense expenditure, which were central topics at the Korea-U.S. summit.