North Korea silent about fate of US soldier who crossed border
North Korea remains silent about the highly unusual entry of an American soldier across its heavily fortified border with South Korea, but has test-fired short-range missiles in its latest weapons display.
Nearly a day after the soldier bolted into North Korea during a tour in the border village of Panmunjom, there was no word on the fate of Private 2nd Class Travis King, the first known American detained in the North in nearly five years.
The North’s missile launches on Wednesday morning were seen as a protest at the deployment of a US nuclear-armed submarine in South Korea the previous day and were not likely to be related to Pte King’s border crossing.
“It’s likely that North Korea will use the soldier for propaganda purposes in the short-term and then as a bargaining chip in the mid-to-long term,” Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in South Korea, said.
Pte King, 23, was a cavalry scout with the 1st Armoured Division who had served nearly two months in a South Korean prison for assault.
He was released on July 10 and was being sent home on Monday to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he could have faced additional military discipline and discharge from the service.
He was escorted as far as customs but left the airport before boarding his plane.
It was not clear how he spent the hours until joining the Panmunjom tour and running across the border on Tuesday afternoon.
The US army released his name and limited information after Pte King’s family was notified.
Pte King’s mother told ABC News that she was shocked when she heard her son had crossed into North Korea.
“I can’t see Travis doing anything like that,” Claudine Gates, of Racine, Wisconsin, said.
Ms Gates said the army told her on Tuesday morning of her son’s entrance to North Korea. She said she last heard from her son “a few days ago,” when he told her he would return soon to Fort Bliss. She added she just wanted “him to come home”.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the US government was working with North Korean counterparts to “resolve this incident”.
The American-led UN Command said on Tuesday that the US soldier was believed to be in North Korean custody.
“We’re closely monitoring and investigating the situation,” US defence secretary Lloyd Austin told a Pentagon news conference, noting that his foremost concern was for the soldier’s well-being.
“This will develop in the next several days and hours, and we’ll keep you posted,” he said.
It was not known whether and how the US and North Korea, who have no diplomatic relations, would hold talks.
In the past, Sweden, which has an embassy in Pyongyang, provided consular services for other Americans detained in North Korea. But its embassy’s Swedish diplomatic staff had reportedly not returned to North Korea since the country imposed a Covid-19 lockdown in early 2020 and ordered all foreigners to leave.
Some observers say North Korea and the US could still communicate via Panmunjom or the North Korean mission at the UN in New York.
Cases of Americans or South Koreans defecting to North Korea are rare, although more than 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea to avoid political oppression and economic difficulties since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War.
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