“Discussions” have started between the UN and Pyongyang over US soldier Travis King, who is believed to be detained in North Korea after entering it illegally on July 18, the deputy chief of the UN command said on Monday.
“Discussions have started with the Korean People’s Army through the mechanism of the armistice agreement,” General Andrew Harrison told a press briefing. He was referring to the agreement that ended hostilities in 1953 after the Korean War.
“Our primary concern is the well-being of Private King,” the general said, noting that the incident was still “under investigation.”
General Harrison clarified that the armistice agreement provided a mechanism for the UN command to communicate with the North Korean army. But he declined to give more details, citing the “very delicate nature of these negotiations”.
It is a “difficult and complex situation”, he acknowledged.
Asked if Private King was considered by both sides to have defected, General Harrison replied that the UN command “did not classify Private King as anything other than an ordinary American soldier”. He added that he would never speak on behalf of North Korea.
Travis King, a second-class soldier engaged since 2021 in his twenties, crossed the border between South Korea and North Korea on July 18 “voluntarily and without authorization”, technically still in a state of war, during a visit to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) which separates the two countries.
Located in North Korea, the demilitarized zone can be visited. The area is administered by the UN, but you must register several weeks in advance by providing a passport.
But the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the “DMZ” has been closed since the incident. And it is likely to remain so for the near future, according to General Harrison, who stressed that it can “never be a mere tourist destination”.
Far from his
Jailed two months after an alcoholic fight in a nightclub and an altercation with the local police in Seoul, and just released from prison on July 10, Travis King had been escorted to the airport to return to the United States for a disciplinary hearing.
According to his family, the young man in his twenties suffered from being away from his family and was very affected by the death of a cousin.
The United Nations command, includes several countries and is led by the United States, with Washington overseeing the Korean War truce.
About 27,000 American soldiers are based in South Korea, a key American ally in the region and which depends on Washington for its security.
Since the 1950-1953 war, concluded by an armistice in the absence of a peace treaty, the two Koreas are still officially at war and the border is fortified and mined, except in Panmunjom where it is materialized only by a small concrete wall.
But under the terms of the armistice, South Korean and UN personnel were not allowed to cross the border to catch King.
Pyongyang did not comment after the incident. “The Pentagon has attempted to contact the North Korean military to inquire about King’s situation but has received no response,” State Department spokesman Matt Miller said Thursday.
Almost all embassies in Pyongyang have withdrawn their foreign staff since North Korea closed its borders in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This also applies to Sweden, which handles US consular affairs in the North Korean capital, since the United States and North Korea have no diplomatic relations.