On his way to attend the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea in February, Vice President Mike Pence plans to make a stop in Alaska.
The White House made the announcement on Wednesday, saying that Pence will visit intercontinental ballistic missile facilities on his stopover in the 49th state.
“The Vice President is traveling to the Olympic Games in South Korea to reinforce the strong U.S. presence on the Korean Peninsula and send a clear message of American resolve to the North Korean regime,” Jarrod Agen, the vice president’s Deputy Chief of Staff, said in the announcement.
That’s in addition to showing support for American athletes at the games and the U.S. military members stationed in the region.
Pence’s travel plans were announced the day after North and South Korea sat down to talk for the first time in two years. Those talks resulted in the opening of a military hotline and the North Korean decision to send a delegation of athletes to the upcoming winter Olympics.
Vice President Pence will attend the opening ceremonies at the Olympics on Feb. 9, so his visit to Alaska will likely take place in the days before.
Emily Russell is the voice of Alaska morning news as Alaska Public Media’s Morning News Host and Producer.
Originally from the Adirondacks in upstate New York, Emily moved to Alaska in 2012. She skied her way through three winters in Fairbanks, earning her Master’s degree in Northern Studies from UAF.
Emily’s career in radio started in Nome in 2015, reporting for KNOM on everything from subsistence whale harvests to housing shortages in Native villages. She then worked for KCAW in Sitka, finally seeing what all the fuss with Southeast, Alaska was all about.
Back on the road system, Emily is looking forward to driving her Subaru around the region to hike, hunt, fish and pick as many berries as possible. When she’s not talking into the mic in the morning, Emily can be found reporting from the peaks above Anchorage to the rivers around Southcentral.
