A US soldier is likely being held in North Korea after crossing the border during a visit to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that separates that country from its southern neighbor, officials in Washington said on Tuesday.
“An American soldier, during a visit, voluntarily and without authorization” crossed the demarcation line (DMZ), declared Colonel Isaac Taylor, the spokesman for the American forces in South Korea.
Another US official had previously told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that the soldier was presumed to be detained in North Korea.
According to information from the American television channel CBS, he is a man of rank who was to be brought back to the United States for disciplinary reasons, but who managed to leave the airport and join a group. visitors to the DMZ.
He was then in the “common security zone”, had pointed out the United Nations command post a few hours earlier, which had just mentioned an “American citizen” without providing his military status.
Contacted by AFP, the South Korean Ministry of Defense declined to comment.
“This man gave a loud ‘ha ha ha’ and ran between buildings” after the group he was part of visited one of the buildings on the site, a witness to the scene told CBS News.
“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
Hundreds of tourists go every day, as part of organized trips, inside the “common security zone”, located inside 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.
“Panmonjom 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 up to the “common security area” has also 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.
“First contact since COVID”
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.
“This is the first contact since COVID […]. We don’t know what they are thinking,” he told NK News.
The case comes at a time when relations between the two Koreas are at an all-time low, with diplomacy at a standstill and Kim Jong-un calling for further development of armaments in his country, 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” (JSA) by North Koreans armed with axes during an argument over a tree.
The last time there was a defection from the JSA was in 2017, when a North Korean serviceman drove a military jeep and then walked across the demarcation line at Panmunjom.
