US soldier detained after crossing into North Korea

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

The soldier had been on a guided tour of the Joint Security Area at the heart of the demilitarised zone, or DMZ, that has separated the two Koreas since the 1950s. He was identified as Travis King, a private second class — a low-ranked enlisted soldier — who had joined in January 2021, according to an Army spokesman.

The United Nations Command (UNC), the multinational resident force in South Korea, said Tuesday that a US citizen crossed the demarcation line into North Korea.

Colonel Isaac Taylor, a spokesman for US Forces Korea, said later the US service member had “wilfully and without authorisation” crossed into North Korea. Taylor said the US military was working with North Korean counterparts to resolve the incident.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the military is trying to reach the man’s family and that the situation would continue to evolve over the coming days.

The service member had recently been released from South Korean custody where he was being held on assault charges and was due to be returned to the US to face additional military discipline, according to a US official.

Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, told reporters on Tuesday that the Biden administration’s “primary concern” was “ascertaining clearly the wellbeing of this individual” and “getting to the bottom of exactly what happened”.

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

As part of a deal between the UNC and North Korea signed in 2018, landmines, guard posts and firearms were removed from the Joint Security Area, which has been used as a venue for negotiations between the Koreas as well as between the North and the US.

While there are no physical barriers preventing visitors to the area from crossing into North Korean territory, tour groups visiting the area from the South are supposed to be closely supervised by UNC troops.

King is believed to be the only American in North Korean custody. The last US citizen known to be detained was in 2018, when a man was held for a month after entering illegally from China.

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

Defections by US service members to North Korea are very rare. One, then army sergeant Charles Jenkins, left his post in 1965 and fled across the DMZ. He later said he regretted his decision almost immediately, spending at least seven years as a prisoner and being used frequently as a trophy in North Korean propaganda. 

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

Campbell made the announcement in Seoul after co-chairing the inaugural meeting of a new bilateral nuclear consultative group designed to give Seoul more insight and input into US war planning. It is the first time a US nuclear-armed submarine has paid an open visit to South Korea since the 1980s.

The military deployments are designed to reassure the South Korean public that Washington will defend its ally from any potential attack from North Korea.

Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum on Tuesday, Admiral John Aquilino, head of US Indo-Pacific command, said it was “critical for the United States to demonstrate all forms of our national power to support our alliances”. The US recently flew a B-52 nuclear-capable bomber over the Korean peninsula accompanied by South Korean fighter jets, the former top gun fighter pilot added.

The military deployments have provoked a furious response from the North Korean regime. On Monday, Kim Yo Jong, a senior regime official and the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, accused Washington of committing “foolish acts that provoke us even at the risk of its own security”.

Aquilino said North Korea had fired two missiles on Tuesday, possibly in response to the arrival of the US submarine.

“We could make some assessment that their unhappiness with that visit could have been the cause for this event. That said . . . they’ve been shooting missiles so frequently, that I can’t figure out what their justification is.”

Additional reporting by Donato Paolo Mancini in London and Lauren Fedor in Washington