German Chancellor Visits DMZ... Urges North Korea to Halt Ballistic Missile Tests

Yoon's First Schedule After Visiting Korea Ahead of Summit
"Threat to Regional Peace"

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the 21st and urged North Korea to halt its ballistic missile tests, calling them a "threat to regional peace."

After attending the Group of Seven (G7) summit held in Hiroshima, Japan, Scholz visited South Korea and stated that North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile tests still pose a dangerous situation on the Korean Peninsula, Reuters reported.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who visited Korea for the Korea-Germany summit, arrived at Seoul Airport in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do on the afternoon of the 21st and greeted Michael Reiffenstuel, the German Ambassador to Korea, before boarding the vehicle.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Chancellor Scholz and his wife Britta Ernst visited the DMZ immediately after arriving in South Korea from Hiroshima, and later held a summit meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol.

This is the first visit by a German chancellor to South Korea in 13 years since former Chancellor Angela Merkel visited for the Group of Twenty (G20) summit in 2010. It is also the first official bilateral visit in 30 years since then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1993.