US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth appeared at the border with North Korea instead of Trump (video)

And in the demilitarized zone, the head of the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, who went to South Korea to participate in a consultative meeting on security issues, eventually appeared, writes Reuters. His visit to the well-fortified demilitarized zone comes ahead of talks expected to focus on Washington's goal of changing the role of US forces in Korea.

According to a statement released by South Korea's defense ministry, Haegset landed in the border zone in a US army helicopter and met with South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-bak in the village of Panmunjom on the border of the demilitarized zone with North Korea. "I believe this in itself has symbolic and declarative significance, demonstrating the strength of the South Korea-US alliance and joint defense posture," Ahn said of Hegset's visit to the demilitarized zone. On Nov.

4, defense chiefs plan to hold their annual security consultative meeting, the highest-level forum in which the two countries will chart the course of their military alliance and South Korea's defense against a nuclear-armed North Korea. The South's defense ministry said Aung Gyu-bak and Pete Hegseth will discuss joint defense policy against North Korea, as well as cooperation in regional security, cyber and missile defense.

They are expected to discuss plans to respond to the "changing security and threat environment" by developing an alliance between the two countries, the report said. Washington is considering making the role of the 28,500 US troops in South Korea more flexible, with a view to maintaining the balance of power in Asia amid concerns about China's actions in the South China Sea and around Taiwan.

South Korea has resisted the idea of ​​redistributing the role of American forces, but has worked for the past 20 years to build up its defense capabilities in an effort to assume command of joint US-South Korean forces in wartime. The number of South Korean troops is 450,000. South Korea is planning its biggest defense budget increase in years in 2026, in part to meet US President Donald Trump's demand that Washington's allies pay more for the US military presence in their countries.