SEOUL -- By stressing the importance of a new U.S. missile shield to be deployed in South Korea, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent a message Friday to the system's critics in the South as well as a disgruntled China about Washington's commitment to the plan.
This was Tillerson's first trip to South Korea since taking the post. After arriving earlier that day at a U.S. military base in the country, he flew in a helicopter to the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas. The secretary then met in Seoul with Hwang Kyo-ahn, who is South Korea's prime minister and acting president, and spoke with reporters before his meeting with Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se.
