US soldier detained after crossing into North Korea

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A US soldier was taken into North Korean custody after crossing the inter-Korean border on Tuesday in a bizarre incident amid rising tensions between Pyongyang and Washington.

The soldier was on a guided tour of the Joint Security Zone at the heart of the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, which has separated the two Koreas since the 1950s.

The United Nations Command (UNC), the multinational resident force in South Korea, said on Tuesday that an American citizen had crossed the border into North Korea.

Colonel Isaac Taylor, a spokesman for US Forces Korea, later said that the man was a US service member who had “intentionally and without permission” crossed into North Korea. Taylor said the service member is believed to be in custody and the US military is working with North Korean counterparts to resolve the incident.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that a US service member had crossed the border without permission. He said the army is trying to reach out to the man’s family and the situation will keep changing in the coming days.

According to a US official, the service member was recently released from South Korean custody, where he was held on assault charges, and was to be sent back to the US to face additional military discipline.

White House Press Secretary Karin Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday that the Biden administration’s “primary concern” was to “clearly ascertain the well-being of this individual” and “get to the bottom of what really happened.”

He declined to answer several questions from reporters about the soldier, saying the investigation was at a “very early stage” and that the administration was “trying to gather as much information as possible”.

As part of an agreement signed in 2018 between the UNC and North Korea, landmines, guard posts and firearms were removed from the Joint Security Area, which is often used for talks between Korea as well as North and the US. Used as a venue. ,

Although there is no physical barrier preventing tourists visiting the area from entering North Korean territory, tourist groups visiting the area from the south are closely monitored by UNC troops.

The service member, whose identity has not been released, is believed to be the only American in North Korean custody. The last US citizen to be detained was in 2018, when a man was held for a month after entering illegally from China.

American student Otto Warmbier was arrested in Pyongyang in 2016 and accused of trying to steal a propaganda poster. He was detained for 17 months before being released and returned to the US in a coma. He died a week later.

Defection by American service members to North Korea is very rare. One, then Army Sergeant Charles Jenkins, abandoned his post in 1965 and fled across the DMZ. He later said that he almost immediately regretted his decision, spent at least seven years as a prisoner and was often used as a trophy in North Korean propaganda.

The UNC statement was released just hours after Kurt Campbell, the White House’s top Asian affairs official, announced that the USS Kentucky, a nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarine, had arrived in the South Korean port of Busan on Tuesday.

The announcement came after Campbell co-chaired the inaugural meeting of a new bilateral nuclear advisory group designed to give Seoul more information and input into US war planning. This is the first time since the 1980s that a US nuclear-armed submarine has made an open visit to South Korea.

The military deployment is designed to reassure the South Korean public that Washington will defend its ally from any possible North Korean attacks.

But they have provoked a fierce reaction from the North Korean regime. On Monday, Kim Yo Jong, a senior regime official and sister of leader Kim Jong Un, accused Washington of “foolish acts that provoke us even at the risk of our own security”.

Go Myeong-hyun, senior fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, said Pyongyang could seize the US troop’s entry into its territory as an “opportunity to open a direct line of communication with the White House.”

“We have seen signs in recent months that the Kim regime may be willing to engage in dialogue,” Go said. “How it responds to this incident will reveal its true intentions.”

Additional reporting by Lauren Fedor in Washington