US officials said Tuesday that the American detained after crossing the border from South Korea into North Korea is a soldier in the US Armed Forces.
No details were immediately released about why and how the soldier crossed the heavily fortified inter-Korean border, or whether he was on duty. The official officials quoted by the Associated Press (AP) news agency spoke on condition of anonymity and before the official disclosure of the incident.
Earlier, the UN command overseeing the area had announced that a US citizen had crossed the border between South Korea and North Korea, amid rising tensions over North Korea’s nuclear program.
On Twitter, the US-led United Nations Command said the US citizen was visiting the Korean border village of Panmunjom, where no civilians live, and crossed the border north without authorization. The structure said it is working with its North Korean counterparts to resolve the incident.
A US citizen on a JSA orientation tour crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) without authorization. We believe that he is currently in DPRK custody and we are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident. pic.twitter.com/a6amvnJTuY
– United Nations Command 유엔군사령부/유엔사 (@UN_Command) July 18, 2023
Panmunjom lies within the 248-kilometre-long Demilitarized Zone, which was created at the end of the Korean War.
Occasionally there has been bloodshed and shooting in the area, but it has also been the scene of numerous talks and a popular tourist spot.
Cases of South Korean defections to North Korea are rare, but some 30,000 North Koreans have already chosen to take refuge in South Korea since the end of the Korean War (1950-1953), to avoid oppression and political and economic difficulties.
Source: TSF
