'Our goal is not war': South Korea, US defense chiefs
U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, left, speaks to reporters during his visit the Demilitarized Zone with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo, Friday. / Joint press corps
Defense Secretary Mattis visits DMZ
By Jun Ji-hye
U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Friday that Washington did not want to go to war with Pyongyang, but hoped the Korean Peninsula would be denuclearized.
He made the remark during a visit to the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides North and South Korea.
The U.S. defense chief arrived in Seoul earlier in the day to attend the 49th Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) to be held Saturday.
The SCM is the allies’ annual gathering that brings together high-level defense and diplomatic officials from the two countries.
Mattis’s visit comes amid heightened military tension here after a recent exchange of bombastic threats between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“North Korean provocations continue to threaten regional and world peace and despite unanimous condemnation by the United Nations Security Council they still proceed,” Mattis said standing several meters away from the North.
“As U.S. Secretary of State Tillerson has made clear, our goal is not war, but rather the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
Referring to talks with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo held earlier this week on the sidelines of an ASEAN security forum in the Philippines, Mattis also said, “We made clear our mutual commitment to a diplomatic solution to address North Korea’s reckless outlaw behavior.”
Minister Song said the North’s possible use of nuclear weapons would only face condemnation from the international community and stern punishment from South Korea and the U.S.
“I urge the North to stop its reckless provocations and hold talks with the South to establish peace,” Song said. “The defense chiefs of South Korea and the U.S. will preserve peace through strong military power.”
Later in the day, Mattis paid a courtesy call on President Moon Jae-in at Cheong Wa Dae, during which time he emphasized the trust in the Seoul-Washington alliance.
Moon expressed his gratitude to U.S. efforts to cope with tension here, saying, “I believe your visit to the Joint Security Area and the recent dispatch of U.S. strategic military assets to the Korean Peninsula are effectively acting as deterrence against the North’s possible provocations.”
Strategic assets refer to high-profile weapons systems such as stealth bombers, and nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines.
According to presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun, Moon also asked Mattis to support the expansion of the rotational deployment of U.S. strategic assets to the peninsula as well as Seoul’s wish to possess advanced weapons, saying he agreed on this with Trump during their June summit in Washington.
“South Korea and the United States need to enhance their deterrence based on their combined defense posture against the North’s nuclear threats,” Moon was quoted as saying by Park.
Meanwhile, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Jeong Kyeong-doo and his U.S. counterpart Gen. Joe Dunford as well as other high-ranking military officers from the two sides held the 42nd Military Committee Meeting (MCM) to share updates on security on the peninsula, their combined operational plans, related exercises and cyber security. The MCM is held every year, usually before the SCM.
During the talks, the senior military leaders strongly denounced the North’s nuclear and missile provocations, agreeing to “continuously develop effective response measures in order to deter, and if necessary, firmly respond to additional provocation,” according to their joint statement.
Gen. Dunford reaffirmed that the U.S. will continue its ironclad commitment to the defense of the peninsula including proliferation deterrence, the statement added.
Regarding Saturday’s defense talks that will take place before a summit between Moon and Trump scheduled for Nov. 7 in Seoul, Secretary Mattis said officials from the two countries would discuss ways to further strengthen the South Korea-U.S. alliance.
According to defense officials here, the agenda will be the conditions for the transfer of wartime operational control of South Korean forces from the U.S., and Seoul’s wish to build a nuclear-powered submarine to deal with threats from the North’s submarine-launched ballistic missiles, as well as the rotational deployment of U.S. strategic weapons.