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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 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.
The United Nations Command (UNC), the multinational resident force in South Korea, announced on Tuesday afternoon that a US citizen crossed the demarcation line into North Korea “without authorisation”.
“We believe he is currently in [North Korean] custody and are working with our Korean People’s Army counterparts to resolve this incident,” it said, referring to Pyongyang’s armed forces.
A US official confirmed that the citizen in question was a serving soldier. The individual, a private in the US army, is understood not to have been on duty when he crossed into North Korean territory.
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 is often 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.
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.
But they 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”.
Go Myong-hyun, senior fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, said that Pyongyang could seize upon the crossing of the US soldier 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 could be ready to engage in dialogue,” said Go. “How it responds to this incident will reveal its true intentions.”
