Seoul, South Korea. US Vice President on a public relations excursion to South Korea to display moral support against neighbor North Korea, has indicated America’s “strategic patience” is now at an end.
American Vice President Mike Pence declared an end to what he called a policy of “strategic patience” on North Korea during a surprise visit to the Demilitarized Zone border area of North Korea, during his trip to South Korea.
“The era of strategic patience is over,” Pence said. “President Trump has made it clear that the patience of the United States and our allies in this region has run out and we want to see change. We want to see North Korea abandon its reckless path of the development of nuclear weapons, and also its continual use and testing of ballistic missiles is unacceptable.”
The Vice President landed via helicopter at Camp Bonifas, about a mile from the southern boundary of the zone. He received a security briefing from Gen. Vincent Brooks, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, and then visited the Freedom House observation post on the North Korean border as a provocation to North Korean forces.
His visit comes just a day after North Korea’s failed missile launch, and one month since Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to the DMZ, where he was notably photographed by a North Korean soldier standing on the other side of an observation post.
The United States has dispatched a US Navy Aircraft Carrier Task Force to provoke North Korea and await the results. The world can only await the response from Kim Jong-un as time for diplomacy has ended, according to Vice President Pence.