A US soldier is likely to be detained by Pyongyang on Wednesday after crossing the border between the two Koreas, an incident that could further sour relations between Washington and Pyongyang.
Hours after the incident, North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, according to the South Korean military.
Identified by the US military, Travis King, a second-class soldier engaged since 2021, crossed "voluntarily and without authorization" the border between the two countries, technically still in a state of war, during a visit to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating North and South, said Colonel Isaac Taylor, spokesman for US forces in South Korea.
Another American official, told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that this soldier was presumed to be detained in North Korea - what the UN command confirmed.
Travis King had just spent two months in a South Korean prison, a South Korean official told AFP. The soldier "was released on July 10 after serving about two months in a South Korean prison on assault charges," he said.
According to information from CBS TV citing US officials, he was to be flown back to the United States for disciplinary reasons but managed to leave the airport and join a group of visitors to the DMZ.
"We believe he is currently being held in the DPRK (North Korea) and are working with our counterparts in the North Korean People's Army to resolve this incident," the UN command had previously stressed.
"We are closely monitoring the situation and investigating," US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters.
Contacted by AFP, the South Korean Ministry of Defense declined to comment.
"This man emitted a loud ha ha ha and ran between buildings" after the visit by the group of which he was part of one of the buildings of the site, told CBS News a witness of the scene.
"At first I thought it was a bad joke but when he didn't come back I realized it wasn't a joke, then everyone reacted and it was madness," he said. he said again.
Hundreds of tourists travel every day, as part of organized tours, inside the "common security area" (JSA), located within the DMZ which has separated the two Koreas for nearly 70 years.
The Korean War (1950-1953) having ended in an armistice, and not by a peace agreement, the two neighbors are still, technically, in a state of war.
Former US President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2019 in the border village of Panmunjom and even stepped on North Korean soil when crossing the demarcation line.
"Panmunjom is the site that this American most likely chose to pass through in North Korea because it is the only possible place of escape during the visit to the joint security area," Choi Gi told AFP. He, a professor of military studies at Sangji University.
North Korea closed its borders at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and has yet to reopen them. Its security presence on its side of the border has been considerably reduced.
When AFP visited the "joint security area" earlier this year, no North Korean guards were visible there.
But even in this configuration, under armistice protocols, no South Korean or American personnel can cross the border to pick up the American national.
Steve Tharp, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel who worked in the area, admitted to the Seoul-based specialist website NK News that he had no idea how the North Koreans would react. to this incident: there is "so little data available" on events like this, he stressed.
"It's the first contact since the Covid (...). We don't know what they think," he told NK News.
The case comes at a time when diplomatic relations between the two Koreas are at a standstill.
Kim Jong Un called for developing armaments in the North, including tactical nuclear weapons.
South Korea and the United States have increased their military cooperation in response to North Korean missile tests, with in particular joint maneuvers involving latest-generation fighter jets and strategic forces.
The two countries held the first meeting of the Nuclear Advisory Group in Seoul on Tuesday and announced that a US nuclear submarine was calling at Busan, in the southern part of South Korea, for the first time since 1981.
In 1976, two American soldiers were killed in the "Joint Security Area" by North Koreans armed with axes during an argument over a tree.
19/07/2023 07:34:17 - Seoul (AFP) © 2023 AFP
