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SEOUL: North Korea remained silent on Thursday about a US soldier who two days earlier split from a tour group and made a dash across the heavily fortified border, landing Washington in a new diplomatic quagmire amid an already tense military standoff.
US officials said Pyongyang has not responded to communication from the American military about the soldier, Private Travis T. King. North Korea’s state media, which in the past reported on the detention of US nationals, have also not commented on the incident so far.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a briefing the Pentagon had “reached out” to counterparts in North Korea’s Korean People’s Army about King, but added: “My understanding is that those communications have not yet been answered.”
The incident comes at a time of heightened tension on the Korean peninsula. The North has been pressing on with ballistic missiles tests, the latest timed for the arrival in the South of a US nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine for the first time since the 1980s.
Last week, North Korea launched its newest solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile which it said had the longest flight time ever, a test that experts described as a “remarkable” success.
King was on a civilian tour of the Panmunjom truce village when he suddenly dashed across the Military Demarcation Line that has separated the two Korea since the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice.
King had gone through legal troubles while stationed in South Korea, serving detention before he was being escorted to the airport this week to fly back to the United States.
Under circumstances that remained unclear, he turned around after passing through security at the gate and fled. Later, he was with a group of about 40 on a tour of the Joint Security Area (JSA) on the military border.
In a quickly unfolding chaotic scene, King made a dash between the iconic blue buildings that straddle the border and ran over the line. The US government appeared to make little headway in determining the fate of the soldier.
State Department spokesman Miller said Sweden has been engaged as it acts as a diplomatic channel for Washington which remains technically at war with North Korea.
“We are still trying to gather information here about the whereabouts of Private King,” he said. “The administration has and will continue to actively work to ensure his safety and return him home to his family.”
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing the Biden administration was still gathering the facts.
North Korea has previously detained Americans who entered the country and put them on trial but eventually released them, often following high-level diplomatic intervention.
In a case that remains unexplained, an American college student Otto Warmbier was held for more than a year and was returned to the United States in a coma and died days later.
