2023-07-19 07:07:21
The US soldier, who is believed to be in North Korean custody following crossing the border from South to North Korea, was previously in prison in South Korea. According to an official in Seoul, the man was detained for around two months on allegations of assault. He was released on July 10, the official told AFP on Wednesday. The soldier had crossed the heavily secured border from South to North Korea during a sightseeing tour.
This was done “on purpose and without permission,” a spokesman for the US armed forces said on Tuesday. He is now believed to be in North Korean custody. The incident might further exacerbate strained relations between Washington and Pyongyang.
The UN command in the area also said a US citizen had crossed the border and is believed to be in North Korean custody. US forces and the UN command said they would work with North Korean forces to resolve the incident.
According to the US military, the soldier is a man who has been in the army since 2021. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Washington is closely monitoring and studying the situation.
South Korean police said the man was being investigated for assault in September 2022. However, he was reportedly not arrested at the time.
The US broadcaster CBS reported that the soldier should have been taken out of the country for disciplinary reasons. However, following passing security checks at the airport, he managed to turn around and join a group of visitors to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
An eyewitness who said he was on the same tour told CBS the group was visiting one of the buildings on the site when “this man is shouting ‘Ha-ha-ha’ loudly and just walking between some of the buildings.” “At first I thought it was a bad joke, but when he didn’t come back I realized it wasn’t a joke,” the witness said.
South Korea and North Korea are still formally at war today because no peace treaty was signed following the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. A demilitarized zone has separated the two Korean states since the end of the war. The areas bordering the border strip are strictly guarded. The Demilitarized Zone is also a popular tourist destination. Hundreds of visitors visit the area on the South Korean side every day.
North Korea sealed off its borders at the beginning of the corona pandemic in 2020 and has not reopened to this day. The presence of security personnel on the North Korean side of the common security zone in the demilitarized zone has also been significantly reduced.
Relations between North and South Korea are at an all-time low. South Korea is one of America’s allies, while communist North Korea counts the United States among its greatest enemies.
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles early Wednesday, according to the South Korean military. They landed in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan. Presumably, it was a reaction to the stationing of a nuclear-armed US Navy submarine in South Korea, which the United States announced on Tuesday.
Pyongyang’s recent rocket launches “probably have nothing” to do with the young US soldier crossing the border, British broadcaster BBC quoted Leif-Eric Easley of Ewha University in Seoul as saying. The North Korean regime has for days expressed dissatisfaction with the US Department of Defense’s plan to send a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea, the New York Times reported.
According to the US television channel CNN, the influential sister of the ruler Kim Jong-un, Kim Yo-jong, said at the beginning of the week that the stationing of a US submarine with ballistic missiles on the peninsula would break the already broken lines of communication between the two sides to damage. She had previously reacted to the increased US military cooperation with South Korea by threatening and insulting US President Joe Biden.
The regime in North Korea probably regards the recent border crossing by a US soldier “as a military, intelligence and health threat,” Easley said. However, it is more likely that the man acted “impulsively” due to personal problems.
In the past few decades, Americans have crossed the border into North Korea several times without permission. There they were usually sentenced to several years in prison and only released following lengthy negotiations.
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