South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that “nothing is confirmed” about US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s potential March visit to South Korea.
“Nothing is confirmed about the related matters,” the ministry’s spokesperson Jeon Ha-kyou replied when asked whether South Korea’s government was informed of the potential visit, in a regular briefing. “It will be the US government who would be reviewing such itinerary. … So we cannot confirm any information yet.”
The ministry spokesperson’s remarks come a day after local media reported that Hegseth was considering visiting South Korea in March, with a high possibility of visiting major shipyards here, citing unnamed sources in the shipbuilding and defense industries. The visit would fall sometime around the wrap-up of the South Korea-US combined Freedom Shield military exercise scheduled to be held in mid-March, the reports added.
The Pentagon also said via its spokesperson on Wednesday that they “don’t have any travel plans to announce right now,” in an email to Yonhap News Agency.
Both spokespersons for HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Hanwha Ocean Co. — the two major shipbuilders here — told The Korea Herald that they have “yet to hear” any information on Hegseth’s potential visit, in separate phone calls.
The report of a visit comes amid building anticipation that South Korean shipyards could benefit from the US government’s plans to outsource naval shipbuilding and ship repairs to international shipyards.
In a phone conversation with now-impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol last November, then-President-elect Donald Trump mentioned his intent to cooperate with South Korea in the shipbuilding industry, while nodding towards the advanced warship and shipbuilding capabilities here.
Should Hegseth visit, it would mark the first trip by a Cabinet-level US official to South Korea since the launch of the second Trump administration last month. Hegseth is also likely to come amid a leadership vacuum here, with several top military officials, including former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and ex-Chief of Army Staff Gen. Park An-su, detained and indicted for playing key roles in Yoon’s Dec. 3 martial law declaration.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
