A South Korean building complex can be seen in the background, with North Korean soldiers guarding a truce village in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas. Dita Alangkara/AP
A US soldier being smuggled out of South Korea escaped from an airport and crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea, reportedly laughing out loud.
The US citizen, who was named by Travis King by the South Korean daily Dong-a Ilbo in reference to the South Korean army, was in the custody of North Korean authorities. He is believed to have been out of uniform at the time.
U.S. officials also confirmed the name to CBS News, saying the soldier in question was a private second class and was being escorted back to the U.S. from South Korea by disciplinary reasons.
After clearing airport security, officials said he somehow made it back and managed to join a border tour group before “arbitrarily” crossing into North Korea.
A Joe Biden spokesman said the US are working to resolve the situation, and that Washington “has been in contact” with South Korea and Sweden, which have diplomatic missions in Pyongyang, about the detention of a US soldier.
The US-led UN command, which controls the demilitarized zone (DMZ) area on the border, said it was working with its North Korean counterparts to resolve the issue.
South Korean army soldiers patrol the demilitarized zone Photo: Ahn Yong-jun/AP
An unauthorized border crossing took place at the Korean border “village of peace” Phanmunjom during an official tour of the demilitarized zone that separated the two Koreas for 70 years.
Panmunjom, located inside the 154-mile demilitarized zone, is known for its bright blue huts, which in the past served as a safe place for negotiations between officials from both sides of the border.
The huts are located in a joint security zone where armistice Korean War 1950-53 Now they are crossing the military demarcation line, a long, narrow block of concrete.
Donald Trump made history in 2019 when he became the first sitting U.S. leader to step from south to north to greet Kim Jong Un. The village has also been a popular tourist destination, although tours have been limited in recent years.
In the Facebook post posted NK News, Mikaela Johansson, an alleged eyewitness, wrote that she was on the same trip as the man who suddenly crossed the military demarcation line.
She said the military was escorting the group to conference room T2, from where you can safely exit to the north.
“We go out again and wait for the rest of the band to come out. . No North Koreans in sight, not even the guards on the famous line on the other side,” she said.
“Then to our right we hear a loud HAHAHA and one guy from OUR GROUP. who has been with us all day, runs between the two buildings and crosses to the other side!!”
Ms Johansson said it took everyone “a second to react and understand what really happened” before they were ordered to leave and return to their military bus. She said officials working in the joint security zone asked her not to release the photos.
The Telegraph was unable to verify her account immediately, and she did not respond to a request for comment.
The incident comes at a challenging time amid high tensions on the Korean Peninsula when a US nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine arrived in South Korea on a rare visit to warn North Korea of its own military actions.
North Korea is testing increasingly powerful missiles. Photo: KCNA via KNS. warheads, including a new solid-propellant ICBM that was launched last week.
The US State Department is urging US citizens not to enter North Korea “due to the continuing serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of US citizens.”
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The ban comes after Otto Warmbier, an American college student, was detained by North Korean authorities while on a tour of the country in 2015. He died in 2017, a few days after he was released from North Korea and returned to the United States in a coma.
Desertions in the Joint Security Zone are rare due to the large presence of troops, but in 2017 a North Korean soldier was fired upon by his comrades as he made a dash to the south. In the end, he survived.
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