US military rushes to North Korea – DW – 7/19/2023

A US military official crossed the North Korean border without permission on Tuesday while visiting the demilitarized border that separates the two Koreas. After the incident, US military officials said they believed the soldier was being held by North Korean regime forces, but flatly denied he had defected.

The information was first released by the United Nations Command (UNC), which is responsible for running the southern edge of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

“A US citizen crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea’s official name) without authorization during an orientation trip,” the command said. “We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and we are working with our Korean People’s Army (KPA) counterparts to resolve this incident,” it added.

The soldier in question is Private 2nd Class Travis King, who served in a detention center in South Korea and was released a week ago, US veterans told CBS News. King was initially taken by military police to Incheon Airport near Seoul, where he was to fly back to the United States and be discharged from the military. But, he did not board the plane.

After getting through airport security, he somehow made it back and joined a tour group at the border before crossing into North Korea. King has been in the Army since January 2021, Army spokesman Bryce Dube told CBS News.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that a troop crossed the military demarcation line separating the two countries “intentionally and without authorization” during the trip.

“We believe he is in DPRK custody, so we are closely monitoring and investigating the situation, and we are working to notify the soldier’s next of kin and get involved in resolving this incident,” Austin said.

In turn, Mikaela Jakobson, who lives in Stockholm and is traveling to South Korea, reported the incident on her Facebook page.

The woman says she and the American were in the only tour group that went to the border. According to him, after the group visited the area of ​​the same camps where former President Donald Trump and dictator Kim Jong-un met in 2019, members of the group heard laughter and saw him “running to the other side between two buildings.”

“It took us some time to understand what had happened, and then we were quickly herded into a military bus,” Jacobson wrote. Although it has always contained people trying to enter South Korea, the region has seen shortcomings in the past.

In 2017, a North Korean soldier A miraculous survivor In which his comrades hit him with several shots, but he survived. In 1984, a student from the former Soviet Union crossed into the South while on a tour, leading to a tragic shootout between troops that ended in the deaths of three North Korean soldiers, one South Korean and one from the United Nations Command.

The reaction of the North Korean authorities, who are keeping the borders even tighter due to Covid-19, is unknown. After the epidemic broke out, the presence of North Korean soldiers in the northern part of the Demilitarized Zone became almost invisible, apparently due to fear of contagion. Jacobson confirmed this detail, writing, “There were no North Koreans in sight, not even guards on the famous line on the other side.”

North Korea fires a missile

Hours after the incident, North Korea fired at least one ballistic missile into the sea, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Wednesday (19, Tuesday afternoon in Brasilia), as a US submarine with nuclear weapons docked in a South Korean port.

The missile was announced by the South Korean military’s General Staff, according to Yonhap, which said the military was still investigating the type of missile and that it fell into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of ​​Japan.

For its part, the Japanese Coast Guard said a second missile would have been launched, according to the Kyoto agency. The launch is the latest in a series of weapons tests by Pyongyang and comes as Seoul and Washington step up their defense cooperation in the face of rising tensions with North Korea.

On Tuesday, the two allies held the first meeting of the Nuclear Advisory Council in Seoul and announced the first time since 1981 that a US nuclear-powered submarine would dock at Busan port.

jps (EFE, AFP, ots)