U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom with his South Korean counterpart on Monday, looking across the border into North Korea in an appearance designed to demonstrate the allies’ strong defense posture.

The joint visit by Hegseth and ROK Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back to the Joint Security Area (JSA) marked the first of its kind in eight years, following the 2017 visit by then-U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis and ROK Defense Minister Song Young-moo.

After receiving an operational briefing from the JSA Security Battalion at Observation Post Ouellette, the two defense chiefs visited