Hagel at DMZ: NKorea watching Syria developments
Source: AP-Excite
Hagel at DMZ: NKorea watching Syria developments
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
PANMUNJOM, Korea (AP) - Standing just steps from the heavily armed border with North Korea, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Monday that Pyongyang is closely watching the international response to Syria's use of chemical weapons against its own people.
And, with North Korean soldiers eyeing his every move, Hagel told reporters traveling with him that the U.S. has no plans to reduce its military presence in South Korea, despite the ongoing budget crisis.
Hagel's visit is timed to the 60th anniversary of the signing of the mutual defense treaty between the U.S. and South Korea, and to reinforce America's commitment to the security of the peninsula and the Asia-Pacific region.
"There is no margin for error up here," Hagel said after a stop in one of the three small blue conference houses that sit on the border of North and South Korea. "This is probably the only place in the world that we have always a risk of confrontation. Where the two sides are looking clearly and directly at each other all the time."
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U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel looks through binoculars to observe training at the Rodriguez Live Fire Complex (RLFC), just miles south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the military border separating the two Koreas, South Korea, on Monday, Sept. 30, 2013. Hagel is in South Korea for celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the ending of the Korean War before heading to Japan for ministerial meetings. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
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