ASSOCIATED PRESS
U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, center, walked across the tarmac to board his plane at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., on Thursday, to travel to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
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Marine Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Hawaii on Thursday morning to meet with U.S. Pacific Command leadership on the first leg
of his second Asia trip in three months.
The Japan Times reported Dunford will visit Japan, China and South Korea to discuss, among other topics, North Korea’s nuclear program. This is the second stop in Hawaii by Dunford since June.
Dunford visited Japan, Singapore and Australia on
a previous trip that started May 31. He stopped at Wake Island and then Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on June 7 on his way back to Washington, D.C.
After North Korea’s second apparently successful intercontinental ballistic missile test launch July 28, Dunford and Adm. Harry Harris, head of U.S. Pacific Command on Oahu, met at the Pentagon and phoned the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Lee Sun-jin. “During the call Dunford and Harris expressed the ironclad commitment to the U.S.-Republic of Korea alliance. The three leaders also discussed military response options,” a spokesman said on the Joint Chiefs website.