CLINTON AND GATES VISIT KOREAN DEMILITARIZED ZONE
Baku, July 21 (AZERTAC). The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have visited the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea.
Mr. Gates said they wanted to show solidarity with their allies in Seoul.
The visit comes ahead of a joint US-South Korea military exercise due to start later this week, intended to send a message of deterrence to North Korea.
Pyongyang has been accused of sinking a South Korean warship with a torpedo in March, but it denies any involvement.
On Tuesday, the nominee to be US director of national intelligence warned that incident might herald a “dangerous new period”.
James Clapper told a Senate hearing that Pyongyang might seek “to advance its internal and external political goals through direct attacks”.
Mr. Gates said their visit to South Korea was meant as a message of solidarity with an ally, and a message of deterrence towards the North.
North and South Korea technically remain at war because their three-year conflict ended in an armistice in 1953 and no peace treaty was signed. The US has since stationed thousands of troops in South Korea.
Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Gates will hold talks with their South Korean counterparts and senior military commanders, during which they will discuss the exercises being held in response to the attack in the Yellow Sea on the corvette, Cheonan, which left 46 sailors dead.
The first maneuvers, in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) for four days from Sunday, will involve the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington and 20 other ships and submarines, as well as 100 aircraft and 8,000 personnel. Later exercises will take place in the Yellow Sea.
China has said it objects to any foreign military operations in the Yellow Sea, which is on the western side of the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has dismissed the exercises as “sabre rattling”.
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