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US officials revealed on Tuesday that North Korea “responded” to inquiries by the United Nations Command regarding Travis King, a US soldier who suddenly crossed into the DPRK while taking part in a tour of the heavily-guarded border area.
"I can confirm that the DPRK has responded to United Nations Command, but I don't have any substantial progress to read out," Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters, adding it was “just an acknowledgment” of the UN inquiry.
On July 18, US Army Private Travis King crossed the inter-Korean border during a tour of Panmunjom, the neutral town where the ceasefire ending three years of fighting was signed in 1953. King had been deployed with US forces in South Korea and recently disciplined, with more punishment reportedly awaiting him back at his home base in Texas.
Experts told US media that how Pyongyang defines King’s entry into the country could dramatically change how long he is held, whether they see it as a trespassing incident that might result in his quick return, or as a defection from which the DPRK government might hope to learn about the US military or even deploy King in propaganda.
Other experts said it was unlikely North Korea would hold him for very long, given the low point in US-DPRK relations, since it would simply create another burden for Pyongyang’s extremely delicate foreign policy.
Diplomacy between the US and DPRK, which remain technically at war as a result of the lack of a permanent peace treaty concluding the 1950-53 conflict, is fraught at best, and even few diplomatic channels exist now than once did.
That is in part due to enduring COVID-19-related restrictions associated with the country’s belated outbreak and difficulty addressing it, but also the steady deterioration of relations following the failed rapprochement of 2018 and 2019. Recent months have seen a slew of weapons tests by North Korea, which said it was protesting US-South Korean military drills rehearsing war against the DPRK.
However, several Americans have also been arrested and detained in the country, with some being sentenced to serve prison time for their crimes. One, a US college student named Otto Warmbier, became a focal point for anti-DPRK sentiment after he was returned to the US in a coma in 2017 following months in North Korean custody.
North Korean authorities said Warmbier had been sentenced to 15 years of labor for attempting to steal a propaganda poster from a restricted staff-only area of a building - a crime he admitted to in a video - and that his condition was a result of having contracted botulism, a food-borne illness, just weeks after his arrest in 2016. He died in the US after his feeding tube was removed, as per his family’s wishes.