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A U.S. Army soldier is believed to be in custody in North Korea after he
"willfully and without authorization" crossed into the country from South Korea.

In a tweet on Tuesday, U.N. Command, which provides support to the Republic of
Korea, said a U.S. national on an "orientation tour" of the Joint Security Area
had crossed into North Korea "without authorization."



The Joint Security Area refers to a location used for diplomatic relations
between North and South Korea.

"A U.S. National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the
Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(DPRK)," U.N. Command wrote on Tuesday. The Military Demarcation Line is
considered the border between territory controlled by Pyongyang and that under
Seoul's jurisdiction.

In a Korean-language version of the message, U.N. Command said the U.S. national
had "defected to North Korea," according to an English translation.

"We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA
counterparts to resolve this incident," U.N. Command wrote.

The person involved is a U.S. Army soldier, a U.S. Defense Department
spokesperson confirmed to Newsweek. He "willfully and without authorization"
crossed the Military Demarcation Line, the spokesperson said, adding the U.S.
also believes he is in North Korean custody.

The spokesperson declined to provide additional details.

A U.S. official told CBS News that the soldier was being escorted back to U.S.
soil for disciplinary reasons, but had rejoined a tour at the border after
passing through airport security.



An eyewitness told the outlet that they had been part of the same tour group
visiting the Military Demarcation Line, but that after visiting a building in
the area, "this man gives out a loud 'ha ha ha,' and just runs in between some
buildings."

Newsweek has also reached out to the White House and the South Korean defense
and foreign ministries for comment via email.




Tensions between North and South Korea have flared in recent months, spurred on
by Pyongyang's anger over U.S. military collaboration with Seoul. In a
provocative statement earlier this month, North Korea's defense ministry said
the U.S. sending a nuclear submarine to the Korean peninsula had created a "very
dangerous situation," bringing the region "closer to the threshold of nuclear
conflict."



The U.S. State Department advises U.S. citizens not to travel to North Korea
"due to the continuing serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of U.S.
nationals," describing this as a "critical threat."

News of the U.S. national's detention coincides with the arrival of the U.S.
Navy Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine, the USS Kentucky, in the South
Korean port of Busan.

The arrival of the submarine "reflects US' ironclad commitment to the ROK for
our extended deterrence guarantee," U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement,
referring to South Korea as the Republic of Korea.

In mid-June, another Ohio-class vessel, the USS Michigan guided-missile
submarine, stopped in Busan for a scheduled port visit.

Update 07/18/23, 7:30 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional
information.

Update 07/18/23, 10:30 a.m. ET: This article was updated with a Pentagon
statement.

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SEOUL, South Korea — An American soldier facing military disciplinary actions
fled across the heavily armed border from South Korea into North Korea, U.S.
officials said Tuesday, becoming the first American detained in the North in
nearly five years.

Two U.S. officials said the soldier detained was Pvt. 2nd Class Travis King, who
had just been released from a South Korean prison where he'd been held on
assault charges and was facing additional military disciplinary actions in the
United States.



King, who's in his early 20s, was escorted to the airport to be returned to Fort
Bliss, but instead of getting on the plane he left and joined a tour of the
Korean border village of Panmunjom, where he ran across the border.

At a Pentagon news conference Tuesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin did not
name King, but confirmed that a U.S. service member was likely now in North
Korean custody.

“We're closely monitoring and investigating the situation and working to notify
the soldier's next of kin,” Austin said, noting he was foremost concerned about
the trooper's well-being. “This will develop in the next several days and hours,
and we’ll keep you posted.”

Details about King, including his hometown and which additional charges he
faced, were not immediately available. It also was unclear how he managed to
leave the airport while he was being escorted.

The American-led U.N. Command said he is believed to be in North Korean custody
and the command is working with its North Korean counterparts to resolve the
incident. North Korea’s state media didn’t immediately report on the border
crossing.

Cases of Americans or South Koreans defecting to North Korea are rare, though
more than 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea to avoid political
oppression and economic difficulties since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Panmunjom, located inside the 154-mile Demilitarized Zone, has been jointly
overseen by the U.N. Command and North Korea since its creation at the close of
the Korean War. Bloodshed and gunfire have occasionally occurred there, but it
also has been a venue for numerous talks and is a popular tourist spot.




Known for its blue huts straddling concrete slabs that form the demarcation
line, Panmunjom draws visitors from both sides who want to see the Cold War’s
last frontier. No civilians live at Panmunjom. In the past, North and South
Korean soldiers faced off within yards of each other.



Tours to the southern side of the village reportedly drew around 100,000
visitors a year before the coronavirus pandemic, when South Korea restricted
gatherings to slow the spread of COVID-19. The tours resumed fully last year.
During a short-lived period of inter-Korean engagement in 2018, Panmunjom was
one of the border sites that underwent mine-clearing operations by North and
South Korean army engineers as the Koreas vowed to turn the village into a
“peace zone” where tourists from both sides could move around with more freedom.

In November 2017, North Korean soldiers fired 40 rounds as one of their
colleagues raced toward the South. The soldier was hit five times before he was
found beneath a pile of leaves on the southern side of Panmunjom. He survived
and is now in South Korea.



The most famous incident at Panmunjom happened in August 1976, when two American
army officers were killed by ax-wielding North Korean soldiers. The U.S.
officers had been sent to trim a 40-foot tree that obstructed the view from a
checkpoint. The attack prompted Washington to fly nuclear-capable B-52 bombers
toward the DMZ to intimidate North Korea.

Panmunjom also is where the armistice that ended the Korean War was signed. That
armistice has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean
Peninsula technically in a state of war. The United States still stations about
28,000 troops in South Korea.

There have been a small number of U.S. soldiers who went to North Korea during
the Cold War, including Charles Jenkins, who deserted his army post in South
Korea in 1965 and fled across the DMZ. He appeared in North Korean propaganda
films and married a Japanese nursing student who had been abducted from Japan by
North Korean agents. He died in Japan in 2017.



But in recent years, some American civilians have been arrested in North Korea
after allegedly entering the country from China. They were later convicted of
espionage, subversion and other anti-state acts, but often were released after
the U.S. sent high-profile missions to secure their freedom.

In May 2018, North Korea released three American detainees — Kim Dong Chul, Tony
Kim and Kim Hak Song — who returned to the United States on a plane with
then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a short-lived period of warm
relations between the longtime adversaries. Later in 2018, North Korea said it
expelled American Bruce Byron Lowrance. Since his ouster, there have been no
reports of other Americans detained in North Korea before Tuesday’s incident.

The 2018 releases came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was engaged in nuclear
diplomacy with then-President Donald Trump. The high-stakes diplomacy collapsed
in 2019 amid wrangling over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea.



Their freedoms were a striking contrast to the fate of Otto Warmbier, an
American university student who died in 2017 days after he was released by North
Korea in a coma after 17 months in captivity. Warmbier and other previous
American detainees in North Korea were imprisoned over a variety of alleged
crimes, including subversion, anti-state activities and spying.

The United States, South Korea and others have accused North Korea of using
foreign detainees to wrest diplomatic concessions. Some foreigners have said
after their release that their declarations of guilt were coerced while in North
Korean custody.

Tuesday's border crossing happened amid high tensions over North Korea's barrage
of missile tests since the start of last year. A U.S. nuclear-armed submarine
visited South Korea on Tuesday for the first time in four decades in deterrence
against North Korea.

Copp reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Zeke
Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: US soldier flees to North
Korea before planned return to Fort Bliss after prison time




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