USA/South Korea — Gates Plans Demilitarized Zone Visit as Gesture of Solidarity

CAMP CASEY, South Korea, July 20, 2010 — Defense Sec­re­tary Robert M. Gates will vis­it Korea’s demil­i­ta­rized zone tomor­row in a demon­stra­tion of U.S.-South Kore­an sol­i­dar­i­ty.

Gates told sol­diers of the 2nd Infantry Division’s 1st Heavy Brigade Com­bat Team here that he’ll vis­it the demil­i­ta­rized zone along with Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Rod­ham Clin­ton and their South Kore­an coun­ter­parts to high­light the impor­tance of oper­a­tions there and to demon­strate the “stead­fast” U.S. com­mit­ment to South Korea. 

“I think [the demil­i­ta­rized zone vis­it] is a use­ful reminder that we are in an armistice and that it is a volatile region,” Gates told reporters after his talk with the sol­diers, not­ing North Korea’s sink­ing of the freighter Cheo­nan in March that killed 46 South Kore­an sol­diers. “I think it’s a ges­ture of sol­i­dar­i­ty with our Kore­an allies, and recog­ni­tion that issues of [North Kore­an] mis­sile and nuclear pro­lif­er­a­tion endure and con­tin­ue to be seri­ous chal­lenges for us and for our allies.” 

Gates told the sol­diers that he and Clin­ton will par­tic­i­pate with their South Kore­an coun­ter­parts in the first “2‑plus‑2 Talks” between the two nations tomor­row, and they’ll dis­cuss a wide range of issues, includ­ing upcom­ing mil­i­tary exer­cis­es. Though the meet­ings were in the plan­ning stages before the Cheo­nan inci­dent, he said, “that attack and our col­lec­tive efforts to pre­vent anoth­er one will cer­tain­ly also be a part of our bilat­er­al dis­cus­sions this week.” 

In fact, the sec­re­tary said, he would meet lat­er in the day with South Kore­an Defense Min­is­ter Kim Tae-young to dis­cuss a series of exer­cis­es involv­ing the two nations’ armed forces over the next sev­er­al months. The exer­cis­es, main­ly in the Sea of Japan and the Yel­low Sea, are designed to enhance inter­op­er­abil­i­ty and readi­ness, he said, adding that the exer­cis­es also are meant to send a strong sig­nal of deter­rence to North Korea. 

The air­craft car­ri­er USS George Wash­ing­ton is arriv­ing in South Korea this week for a port vis­it and will par­tic­i­pate in the first exer­cise of the upcom­ing series. 

“It’s going to be a pret­ty big exer­cise — I think all togeth­er [it will involve] about 18 ships – 10 U.S., eight South Kore­an,” Gates told the sol­diers, who are based about 20 miles from the demil­i­ta­rized zone. The exer­cise also will involve a large num­ber of air­craft and will fea­ture anti-sub­ma­rine war­fare oper­a­tions and air­craft oper­a­tions using an Air Force train­ing range, he added. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →