- US soldier detained after crossing border into North Korea
- Uncertainty over the soldier’s intentions and potential return
- Detention poses foreign policy dilemma for US President Biden
According to reports, North Korea has detained a serving US soldier who illegally crossed the heavily fortified border from South Korea.
The passenger was on a tour of the UN-managed zone separating the two countries.
The crisis occurs at a particularly tense moment with one of the world’s most isolated states, the North. Americans are advised not to travel there.
It is unknown whether the man defected to North Korea or intends to return. No word has yet arrived from the north.
The soldier is Private 2nd Class Travis King, according to the US associate of the BBC, CBS News, and he is being escorted back to the United States for disciplinary reasons.
According to CBS, Private King had passed through airport security in Seoul but still managed to exit the terminal and embark on a tour of the border, from which he crossed into North Korea.
According to the American military, he acted “willfully and without authorization.
An eyewitness on the same tour told CBS that they had visited a building at the border site, which local media reported to be the Panmunjom truce village, when “this man lets out a loud ‘ha ha ha’ and dashes in between some buildings.
They said, “At first, I thought it was a bad joke, but when he didn’t return, I realized it wasn’t a joke, and then everyone reacted and things got crazy.”
The United Nations Command, which administers the Demilitarised Zone and joint security area (JSA), stated earlier that its team had attempted to negotiate his release with the North Korean military.
“We believe he is currently in the custody of the DPRK and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident,” the statement said.
The KPA is the Korean People’s Army, the military of North Korea. The Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) is one of the most heavily fortified areas in the globe and separates the two Koreas.
It contains landmines and is encircled by electric and barbed wire fencing and surveillance cameras. Armed guardians are required to be on duty around the clock.
Since the Korean War in the 1950s, when the US supported the South, the DMZ has separated the two countries. The conflict ended in an armistice, so technically the two sides are still at war.
Dozens of North Koreans suffering poverty and starvation defect across the DMZ each year, but it is dangerous and rare. In 2020, at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the country closed its borders and has yet to reinstate them.
In 2017, a North Korean soldier drove a vehicle to the Joint Security Area and then dashed across the military demarcation line, South Korea reported at the time. Forty times, the soldier was wounded, but he survived.
Before the pandemic, around 1,000 North Koreans migrated to China annually, according to South Korean government figures.
The detention of the soldier presents US President Biden with a significant foreign policy dilemma. Private King is believed to be the only American in North Korean custody at present. Six South Koreans continue to be detained there.
In 2017, relations between the United States and North Korea plummeted following the death of a student who had been returned to the United States in a coma after being detained a year earlier for stealing a propaganda sign. His family holds the North Korean government responsible for his demise.
In 2018, three American citizens were later released during the presidency of Donald Trump. The talks between Kim Jong Un and the former US president did not improve relations.
Since then, North Korea has tested dozens of missiles with nuclear payloads, prompting US and international sanctions.
The American is arrested the day a nuclear-capable American submarine docks in South Korea for the first time since 1981.
North Korea’s nuclear menace necessitated the delivery of the submarine to aid the nation’s defenses. Pyongyang warned the US that bringing nuclear weapons to the peninsula may spark a nuclear war before its deployment.
