An American who was visiting the South Korean village of Panmunjom, located in the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, crossed the heavily fortified border to the north, where he was allegedly detained, the United Nations Command, which is in charge of to oversee the Joint Security Area (JSA).
According to the Command, the citizen crossed “without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).” “We believe that he is currently in the custody of the DPRK,” said the UN agency, which said it was working with the North Korean military to “resolve this incident.” The place where the crossing occurred is the only section of the demilitarized zone on the Korean peninsula where military forces from Pyongyang and Washington have direct contact.
South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo daily, citing the South Korean military, identified the person as Travis King, a US Army soldier with the rank of private second class.
Colonel Isaac Taylor, a spokesman for the US Army in South Korea (USFK) and the UN Command, refused to confirm to Reuters whether the individual was a US Army soldier or a member of the USFK. “We are still investigating everything that happened,” he said.
The US State Department’s travel advisory prohibits US citizens from entering North Korea “due to the continuing serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of US citizens.”
The ban was put in place after North Korean authorities detained American college student Otto Warmbier while he was traveling through the country in 2015. He died in 2017, days after being released from prison and returning to the United States in a coma.
The incident comes at a time when tensions are high in the region due to the arrival of a US nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine in South Korea. It is an unusual visit that is interpreted as a warning to North Korea about its own military activities. Pyongyang has been testing increasingly powerful missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, including a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile that was launched last week.
