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| US SecDef: Ash Carter |
DEMILITARIZED ZONE, South Korea — US Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Sunday visited the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) dividing the Korean Peninsula and renewed calls for North Korea to avoid provocations and step away from its nuclear program.
On a brief trip to the heavily mined area that for 60 years has been a buffer between the Koreas, Carter and South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-Koo stood atop a hill known as Observation Post Ouellette — the closest post to the demarcation line between the two nations.
Carter later said the United States remains committed to the six-party talks process that seeks the denuclearization of the peninsula.
"That remains our policy," he told reporters. "We remain committed to achieving that negotiated outcome with North Korea, and believe that they should be on the path of doing less — and ultimately zero — in the nuclear field, not to be doing more."
North Korea has carried out three nuclear tests and has explicitly indicated its intention to carry out a fourth.
It abandoned the six-party talks, which also grouped South Korea, China, Russia, the US and Japan, in April 2009.
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