Updated | 2:40 p.m. Tuesday
Vice President Mike Pence stopped Monday in Alaska on his way to Asia where he’ll lead the U.S. Olympic delegation in South Korea.
During his refueling stop at Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Pence toured the Alaskan Command Center. He also had a closed-door meeting with Gov. Bill Walker and top military officials, including Gen. Lori Robinson, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves and Maj. Gen. Laurie Hummel.
Pence took questions from the press inside an airplane hangar at JBER. Standing in front of an F-22 fighter jet, the vice president emphasized Alaska’s role in the American missile defense system.
“Alaska is the home of missile defense, for all intents and purposes in the United States, particularly with regard to the rogue regime in North Korea,” Pence said. ” Alaska is ready, and America is ready.”
More than 40 of the nation’s ground-based missile interceptors are housed at Fort Greely in Alaska’s Interior.
Pence’s visit was a reinforcement of Alaska’s strategic importance, but at the upcoming Olympic Games, North Korean athletes will team up with South Koreans — a move that has eased military tensions on the peninsula.
Still, Pence said, the nuclear threat from the North should not be underestimated.
“Whatever cooperation that’s existing between North and South Korea on Olympic teams,” Pence said, “does not cloud the reality of a regime that must continue to be isolated by the world community.”
The Trump administration has used harsh rhetoric at times against the regime in North Korea.
But, as Pence reminded the press at the airplane hangar at JBER, Trump is a talker, so a meeting with members of the regime isn’t completely off the table when he’s in South Korea.
“With regard to any interaction with the North Korean delegation, I have not requested a meeting, but we’ll see what happens.”
From Alaska, Pence flew to Japan, to meet with Prime Minister Shinzō Abe before continuing on to the Winter Olympics in South Korea.
— Emily Russell, Alaska Public Media
Original story | 8:45 a.m. Tuesday
In Alaska stop, vice president gets refuel and military briefing
Vice President Mike Pence made a stop Monday in Alaska.
Pence visited Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage before continuing on to Japan and South Korea. He’s part of a U.S. delegation that will attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in South Korea this Friday.
But at JBER, part of the vice president’s focus was on sending a message to North Korea.
The vice president’s staff said in a written statement last month that Pence’s visit to Alaska and the Korean Peninsula would send a message of American resolve to North Korea’s leaders, as well as one of support for U.S. Olympic athletes and military service members stationed in the region.
Pence planned to hear from several different military commanders at JBER, said Capt. Bryant Davis, a spokesperson for the U.S. Alaskan Command.
“During his visit, they’ll talk about the strategic importance of Alaska,” Davis said. “And because of our position at the top of the Northern Hemisphere, you really reach pretty much any major location in the Northern Hemisphere within hours by aircraft. So it’s a very strategic and important location for homeland defense and homeland security.”
Pence also was set to discuss the ballistic missile defense system, which includes dozens of interceptor missiles at Fort Greely in the Interior designed to guard against the type of nuclear attack that the North Korean regime has threatened in the past.
The vice president planned to be on the ground in Alaska for a little less than two hours.
— Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media
