Mattis Calls For ‘Denuclearization Of Korean Peninsula’

VPM | By David Welna

Published October 27, 2017 at 9:05 AM EDT

Updated June 13, 2024

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis flew into Seoul today, and he quickly then made an unannounced visit to the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea. This was Mattis’s first trip to the DMZ since taking over at the Pentagon. And it comes, of course, at a time of escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea following North Korea’s series of nuclear tests. NPR’s David Welna is traveling with the defense secretary and joins me from Seoul. Hi there, David.

DAVID WELNA, BYLINE: Hi, David.

GREENE: Quite a moment for a U.S. defense secretary to stare into North Korea, I would imagine.

WELNA: It was. You know, these trips to the DMZ have been made by a lot of top U.S. officials, including most of the recent presidents. And they’ve been fairly routine over the years, but, of course, now it’s different because this Mattis trip to the DMZ took place under some pretty tense circumstances.

And while there were not any big incidents there, his appearance alongside South Korea’s defense minister there I think was clearly meant to send a message to North Korea. Namely, don’t you dare use your nuclear weapons or you’ll be sorry you did.

GREENE: And just, David, I mean, most people have never been to this place. Can you just tell us what it’s like?

WELNA: Well, you know, I’d never been there before. I heard a lot about it. And when I got there, it just was a little unreal. You know, here we had the defense chiefs of the U.S. and South Korea standing just a few feet away from a line of cement going across the pavement that looked just like a street curb. And it’s actually the line that separates the North from the South.

And they both stood with their backs to North Korea as Mattis compared the North to what he called the peace-loving and free society of South Korea. Here’s a bit of what he said.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

JAMES MATTIS: Behind me to the north, an oppressive regime that shackles its people, denying their freedom, their welfare and their human dignity in pursuit of nuclear weapons and the means of delivery in order to threaten others with catastrophe.

GREENE: I mean, again, we’ve heard tougher language from President Trump and from people in the administration, but just to be delivering the message from that spot. Has the North reacted at all to Mattis’s visit?

WELNA: Well, you know, Pyongyang had already denounced Mattis’s visit as a rehearsal for a nuclear war. But even though this trip to the DMZ had not been announced beforehand, there were maybe a dozen stone-faced North Korean soldiers just across the line who seemed to know he was coming. Several of them marched right up to the line and stared at the two defense chiefs, one of them looking through what seemed to be binoculars, even though they were all practically within spitting distance of one another.

Just before Mattis and South Korea’s defense minister left, they turned, and what looked like a gesture of defiance, they took just one look at the North Korean troops and their big stone fortress on the other side of the DMZ.

GREENE: Staring at you from – through binoculars but really close up. Maybe that’s some sort of intimidation tactic. Let me just ask you, David. President Trump is going to South Korea next month. Is he going to go here to the DMZ?

WELNA: Well, you know, it’s not clear. I think there’s a lot of concern here about Trump provoking even more trouble with Pyongyang if he does go to the DMZ. And I think he may be concerned about his own security there. He hasn’t yet said whether he’ll go or not. He’s kind of dithered when asked about it.

In the meantime, there are now three American aircraft carriers in the Western Pacific. And even though that’s not unprecedented, it’s being seen as one more sign that the Pentagon is taking no chances with what North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might do. Just this week, his foreign minister said that threats of an atmospheric test of a hydrogen bomb should be taken literally.

GREENE: NPR’s David Welna in Seoul traveling with the defense secretary, Jim Mattis. Thanks, David.

WELNA: You’re quite welcome, David. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Tags

NPR News

David Welna

David Welna is NPR's national security correspondent.

Having previously covered Congress over a 13-year period starting in 2001, Welna reported extensively on matters related to national security. He covered the debates on Capitol Hill over authorizing the use of military force prior to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the expansion of government surveillance practices arising from Congress' approval of the USA PATRIOT Act. Welna reported on congressional probes into the use of torture by U.S. officials interrogating terrorism suspects. He also traveled with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to Afghanistan on the Pentagon chief's first overseas trip in that post.

As a national security correspondent, Welna has continued covering the overseas travel of Pentagon chiefs who've succeeded Hagel. He has also made regular trips to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to provide ongoing coverage of the detention there of alleged "foreign enemy combatants" and the slow-moving prosecution of some of them in an episodically-convened war court. In Washington, he continues to cover national security-related issues being considered by Congress.

In mid-1998, after 16 years of reporting from abroad for NPR, Welna joined NPR's Chicago bureau. During that posting, he reported on a wide range of issues: changes in Midwestern agriculture that threaten the survival of small farms, the personal impact of foreign conflicts and economic crises in the heartland, and efforts to improve public education. His background in Latin America informed his coverage of the saga of Elian Gonzalez both in Miami and in Cuba.

Welna first filed stories for NPR as a freelancer in 1982, based in Buenos Aires. From there, and subsequently from Rio de Janeiro, he covered events throughout South America. In 1995, Welna became the chief of NPR's Mexico bureau.

Additionally, he has reported for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, The Financial Times, and The Times of London. Welna's photography has appeared in Esquire, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Covering a wide range of stories in Latin America, Welna chronicled the wrenching 1985 trial of Argentina's former military leaders who presided over the disappearance of tens of thousands of suspected dissidents. In Brazil, he visited a town in Sao Paulo state called Americana where former slaveholders from America relocated after the Civil War. Welna covered the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, the mass exodus of Cubans who fled the island on rafts in 1994, the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico, and the U.S. intervention in Haiti to restore Jean Bertrand Aristide to Haiti's presidency.

Welna was honored with the 2011 Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress, given by the National Press Foundation. In 1995, he was awarded an Overseas Press Club award for his coverage of Haiti. During that same year he was chosen by the Latin American Studies Association to receive their annual award for distinguished coverage of Latin America. Welna was awarded a 1997 Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. In 2002, Welna was elected by his colleagues to a two-year term as a member of the Executive Committee of the Congressional Radio-Television Correspondents' Galleries.

A native of Minnesota, Welna graduated magna cum laude from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, with a Bachelor of Arts degree and distinction in Latin American Studies. He was subsequently a Thomas J. Watson Foundation fellow. He speaks fluent Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

See stories by David Welna