• Kamala Harris visited the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean Peninsula.
• She stressed that the U.S. is committed to the security of its Asian allies.
• The visit follows North Korea’s recent missile tests and worries that the country might do a nuclear test.

Vice President Kamala Harris ended her four-day trip to Asia on Thursday with a stop at the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean Peninsula. There, she stressed that the U.S. is committed to the security of its Asian allies, even though North Korea is getting more and more aggressive.

The visit follows North Korea’s recent missile tests and worries that the country might do a nuclear test. The DMZ has become something of a tradition for American leaders who want to show that they are ready to stand up to aggression.

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, while Harris was in Japan. They had already fired one before she left Washington on Sunday. The launches are part of a record number of missile tests this year, which Pyongyang hopes will help it become recognized as a full-fledged nuclear power.

Harris went to the top of a ridge at the DMZ, where he was close to guard towers and security cameras. A South Korean colonel showed her military installations on the southern side through big binoculars. Then, an American colonel pointed out some of the defences along the military demarcation line, such as a fence topped with barbed wire and claymore mines. He said that American soldiers do patrols along a path every day.

“It’s so close,” Harris said.Her visit to the observation post came after she met U.S. service members and some of their relatives at the Camp Bonifas Dining Facility, where she said she wanted them to know “how grateful and thankful we are.”

“I know it’s not always easy. Most of the time it’s not,” she said.

She asked a soldier from Florida if he had checked on his family after Hurricane Ian.

“Yeah, they’re up on a hill,” he said.

When another soldier had trouble saying his name because he was nervous, Harris said, “You know your name! ”

Yoon’s office said that earlier, Harris met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at his office in Seoul. They both spoke out against North Korea’s increasing number of weapons tests and reaffirmed the U.S.’s promise to defend the South with all of its military power in case of war.

They said they were worried about North Korea’s threats of a nuclear war and promised a stronger response to major North Korean provocations, such as a nuclear test, which South Korean officials say could happen in the coming months.

Harris and Yoon were also expected to talk about expanding economic and technology partnerships and mending recently strained ties between Seoul and Tokyo in order to strengthen their trilateral cooperation with Washington in the region.

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