Mike Pompeo, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), visited an island near the tense inter-Korean border during his visit to the peninsula this week, the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) announced Tuesday.
He traveled to Yeonpyeong Island to view the contested waters between the two Koreas and "gain a first-hand appreciation of the North Korean threat to South Korea at this past and potential flashpoint," it said.
The island came under an artillery attack from North Korea in 2010, in which two South Korean marines and two civilians were killed.
(AFP-Yonhap)
Pompeo, a former politician and cavalry officer, was accompanied by Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, commander of the USFK, Gen. Leem Ho-young, deputy commander South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, and U.S. Embassy Seoul Charge d'Affaires Marc Knapper.
"Director Pompeo also conducted detailed security discussions with his South Korean counterpart, National Intelligence Service Director Lee Byeong-ho" during his three-day visit from Saturday, according to the USFK.
He is the highest-ranking American official to travel to Seoul since Vice President Mike Pence's trip last month.
Weeks ago, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis also made separate trips to Seoul in an apparent show of the Trump government's commitment to the alliance. (Yonhap)