UN chief in unprecedented visit to Pentagon: Ban Ki-moon became the first UN secretary general to visit the Pentagon Thursday, holding talks with US military leaders on the crisis over North Korea and a planned peacekeeping mission in Mali.
Ban had asked for the meeting amid mounting tensions on the Korean peninsula and drastic threats from the regime in Pyongyang, officials said.
Ban was welcomed with an honor guard at the steps to the Pentagon before a 30-minute meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey.
The talks focused on North Korea as well as planned or potential United Nations missions in Mali, Somalia and Syria, a senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
