Washington: Amid new tension with North Korea over a planned rocket launch, President Barack Obama plans to visit the Demilitarised Zone separating North and South Korea at the start of an international trip next week, the White House has said.
Sunday’s trip to the most heavily defended border in the world carries obvious Cold War symbolism as Obama tries to foster new nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea.
Although US officials regularly go to the DMZ, the presidential visit is likely to be read by the North as a special show of strength to its new, untested leader.
“The DMZ is the front line of democracy in the Korean peninsula,” and a symbol of US unity with military ally South Korea, Daniel Russel, Asia director for the White House National Security Council said on Tuesday.
“A visit by the president there to see and to thank the US and the South Korean service members makes perfect sense.” (AP)