Seoul [South Korea], November 4 (ANI): North Korea fired multiple artillery rockets less than an hour before US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, South Korea’s military said on Tuesday.
According to South Korean news agency Yonhap, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) confirmed that Pyongyang launched the rockets toward waters off the northern part of the Yellow Sea, also known as the West Sea, around 4 p.m. on November 3. The JCS said it is analyzing the weapons involved.
Yonhap further reported that North Korea had also fired another 10 artillery rockets around 3 p.m. on November 1, coinciding with summit talks between South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Gyeongju during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
During a press conference with his South Korean counterpart Ahn Gyu-back, Hegseth said Washington would make interagency efforts “in a deliberate manner” to fulfill US President Donald Trump’s pledge allowing South Korea to build nuclear-powered submarines in a US shipyard.
When asked about the possibility of US forces stationed in South Korea being deployed in a potential Taiwan Strait contingency, Hegseth said the US would consider “flexibility” for regional contingencies but emphasized that the main focus remains on deterring North Korea.
“We are focused on standing by our allies here in ensuring the threat of the DPRK is not a threat to the Republic of Korea and continuing to extend nuclear deterrence as we have before,” he said, referring to North Korea by the acronym for its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Yonhap reported.
Hegseth and Ahn held their annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) earlier in the day.
During last week’s APEC summit, President Lee had asked President Trump to allow Seoul to secure nuclear fuel supplies for conventionally armed submarines to better track North Korean and Chinese vessels, saying it would reduce the operational burden on US forces.
Yonhap reported that Trump, in a social media post, confirmed that he had given South Korea approval to build a nuclear-powered submarine at a Philadelphia shipyard operated by Hanwha Ocean, a South Korean company.
In an October 29 post, Trump declared that the South Korea–US alliance “is stronger than ever before and, based on that, I have given them approval to build a nuclear-powered submarine.” In a separate post, he added, “South Korea will be building its Nuclear Powered Submarine in the Philadelphia Shipyards, right here in the good ol’ U.S.A.”
Yonhap also reported that North Korea had fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles in October, about a week before Trump’s planned visit to South Korea for the APEC gathering.
Hegseth, accompanied by Defense Minister Ahn, visited Camp Bonifas within the DMZ on Monday. Seoul’s state media cited the JCS as saying, “Our military is closely monitoring North Korea’s various activities under a steadfast South Korea–US combined defense posture and maintains capabilities and a posture capable of overwhelmingly responding to any threat.”
Following his visit to the heavily fortified border, Hegseth posted on X, “I visited the DMZ with my ROK counterpart, Minister Ahn, to meet the brave troops of the U.S., ROK, and UN Command that maintain the military armistice on the Peninsula. Our forces remain ready to support President Trump’s efforts to bring lasting peace through strength.” (ANI)
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