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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will visit South Korea later this week to visit the heavily fortified demilitarized zone, the White House said on Tuesday.
Harris is currently in Tokyo for the state funeral of assassinated former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who will travel to the Demilitarized Zone on Thursday, a White House official said.
This move is likely to lead to North Korea’s angry reactionshe denounced U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as “the worst destroyer of international peace” during a visit to the Demilitarized Zone in August.
On Monday, Pyongyang warned that South Korea and the United States risked a war after the allies held joint naval exercises near the Korean peninsula for the first time in five years.
The U.S. official said Harris’ visit to the demilitarized zone would “emphasize … the commitment of the United States to stand by (South Korea) in the face of any threat posed by North Korea.”
The official said Harris would “reflect on the shared sacrifice of American and South Korean soldiers who lost their lives in the Korean War,” which ended in a ceasefire that divided the peninsula nearly 70 years ago in 1953.
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Harris arrived in Japan on Monday and met Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ahead of Abe’s funeral on Tuesday, which will be attended by hundreds of foreign dignitaries.
South Korean Prime Minister Han Deok-soo also held talks with Harris in Tokyo on Tuesday and said a visit to the DMZ would be “a very symbolic demonstration of your firm commitment to security and peace on the Korean peninsula.”
North Korea conducted a record blitz of weapons tests this year, including firing an intercontinental ballistic missile at full range for the first time since 2017.
Officials in Washington and Seoul have repeatedly warned that North Korea is preparing for a seventh nuclear test — a move the United States has warned would trigger a “swift and forceful” response.
South Korean President Yoon Se-yeol, who took office in May, has vowed to intensify joint military exercises with the United States after years of failed diplomacy with North Korea under his predecessor.
On Monday, the South Korean navy said the joint naval exercise was “ready to demonstrate the strong willingness of the South Korea-U.S. alliance to respond to North Korean provocations.”
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