U.S. vice pres. vows to defend S. Korea after North Korean missile tests

INA-  sources

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday pledged to reinforce the strength of her country's alliance with South Korea, a day after North Korea test-fired ballistic missiles.

Harris is due to wind up her four-day trip to Japan and South Korea with a visit to the Demilitarized Zone, a stretch of land that lies between the two Koreas, in the afternoon after holding talks with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
During the talks, Harris said the long-standing alliance is "a linchpin of security and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and in the Indo-Pacific."

Harris' one-day visit to South Korea, her first to the country since becoming vice president, comes on the heels of North Korea's firing of two short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea off its east coast that followed a launch Sunday, amid concern that Pyongyang may conduct its seventh nuclear test and first since September 2017.

The launches, continuing a record pace of missile testing by North Korea this year, were carried out after a U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea for the countries' first joint naval exercise near the Korean Peninsula in five years.
Japan said it would join the naval exercise on Friday. According to South Korea's Defense Ministry, the trilateral drill, involving aircraft and submarines, will be commanded by the United States.

The last U.S. vice president to visit the DMZ was Mike Pence in 2017, two years before then President Donald Trump went to the zone to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

During her talks with Yoon, who assumed office in May, the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which has fueled concern among South Korean automakers, was also expected to top the agenda, in addition to North Korea.

Source: Kyodo news