With tensions in East Asia running high America’s Secretary of State, John Kerry, is visiting the region over the next few days.
While in South Korea, Kerry had some very strong remarks when it came to North Korea:
“The rhetoric that we’re hearing from North Korea is simply unacceptable by any standard, and I am here to make it clear today, on behalf of President Obama and the citizens of the United States and our bilateral security agreement, that the United States will, if needed, defend our allies and defend ourselves.”
Secretary Kerry also made it very clear that the Korean Peninsula must not be home to nuclear weapons and also held out hope for better ties between the North and South:
“The United States and the Republic of Korea both want to see a peaceful Korean Peninsula, and that means it must be free of nuclear weapons. We are committed to working with the Republic of Korea and the other Six-Party partners in order to get the North to live up to obligations that the North freely accepted and adopted. And we are prepared to work with the conviction that relations between the North and the South can improve – and they could improve very quickly, and the world would be much better off – if the leaders of the North, and one leader in particular, would make the right decisions. So I want to emphasize that that’s our vision and that’s the vision that we think the people of the world share.”
Over the next few pages we present some interesting photos from John Kerry’s visit to Korea. Please let us know your thoughts. Can Secretary Kerry’s visit help ease tensions in the region? Please comment in the space below.
