By Lisa Ferdinando DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Jan. 16, 2018 — Defense Secretary James N.
Mattis has highlighted the efforts aimed at strengthening diplomatic avenues
for a secure, prosperous and denuclearized Korean Peninsula.
Mattis spoke to reporters yesterday while en route to
Vancouver, British Columbia, for the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Security and
Stability on the Korean Peninsula.
“The situation we face I would call it sobering,” Mattis
said. “But this meeting is designed to still make progress diplomatically, such
as you’ve seen with three unanimous Security Council resolutions over these
last months.”
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is
co-hosting the foreign ministers’ meeting today and tomorrow with U.S.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Mattis said his role in the conference is to provide the
military situation, then leave the meeting in the hands of Tillerson and the
foreign ministers.
Effort Firmly in Diplomatic Realm
“I just want to emphasize this, because this shows that this
effort right now is firmly in the diplomatic realm,” he said. “That is where we
are working it.”
Mattis did note that military options do exist if North Korea
were to launch an attack. However, he reiterated the goal of strengthening
diplomatic efforts.
Diplomatic initiatives are “starting to go in the right
direction,” he said, noting developments such as North Korea saying it would
send athletes and musicians to South Korea next month during the Winter
Olympics.
Mattis traveled on today to visit the 366th Fighter Wing,
known as the "Gunfighters," located at Mountain Home Air Force Base
in Idaho. He said he wanted to discuss readiness with the airmen there.
“They are deployable fighter squadrons under that wing, and
they are the ones who are training alongside the Singaporean air force there
over the Snake River in Denver,” he pointed out.
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