American soldier accidentally wandered into North Korea and disappeared: no one knows where he went

According to a US Department of Defense spokesman, an American soldier who crossed the demarcation line in North Korea should be subject to disciplinary action by the US military and should have been sent back to the US. Now he is most likely in the custody of North Korea. The edition told in more detail CNN.

Photo: IStock

The soldier is a junior enlisted soldier who was assigned to the US military in Korea, the official said, adding that he was on tour of the Joint Security Area (JSA) as a civilian. Colonel Isaac Taylor, spokesman for the US military in Korea, said a US soldier "deliberately and without permission" crossed the demarcation line while on tour with the JSA.

"We believe he is currently in North Korean custody and are working to resolve this incident," Taylor said in a statement.

According to another US official, there was no indication that the soldier had attempted to defect.

The incident comes at a time of tense diplomacy and rising military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

A US official said the soldier apparently crossed the front line voluntarily. US officials say they are waiting to confirm his identity until his next of kin are notified.

On the subject: North Korea: How a country lives that threatens America

The Joint Security Area (JSA) is the most recognizable part of the wider demilitarized zone between South and North Korea, and tours of the area are open to the public and organized by the United Nations Command.

The JSA has been disarmed since 2018 following an inter-Korean military agreement, so both South Korean soldiers and North Korean soldiers in the area are unarmed. Neither UN command nor North Korean soldiers are allowed to cross the military demarcation line separating North and South.

The wider demilitarized zone (DMZ) is a 2,5 miles (4 km) wide and 160 miles (257 km) long buffer that separates North and South Korea. It has become one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world, surrounded by miles of barbed wire and landmines, and soldiers patrol the area on both sides.

But the Joint Security Area is a slightly different beast. While there are a number of checkpoints that must be passed to reach the JSA, crossing the military demarcation line, which is the de facto border between North and South Korea, does not require crossing any physical barriers. There is only a small raised line on the ground to mark the boundary. It only takes one step to cross it, as 45th US President Donald Trump did when he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the JSA in 2019.

During the JSA tour, participants are held about 20 yards (18 m) from the line Trump stepped over.

Frozen History

The DMZ is a memorial to the end of the Korean War, which took place from 1950 to 1953.

Under an agreement between the belligerents—North Korea and China on one side, and an assembly of Western allies on the other, known as the United Nations Command—the Korean Peninsula was roughly divided in half, with a buffer zone created between them.

This deal was signed in the village of Phanmunjom, which became the JSA, the only area along the demilitarized zone where the two sides could meet to negotiate and exchange prisoners.

US soldiers are stationed on the South Korean side of the JSA because they were part of the original United Nations command.

For decades, the JSA has seen sporadic outbreaks of violence between the two sides, including in 1976 when two American soldiers were beaten to death by North Korean counterparts as they tried to cut down a tree on the border.

The JSA also faced a string of successful and unsuccessful desertion attempts on both sides over the decades.

Rising tensions

Under the leadership of leader Kim Jong-un, North Korea is stepping up its testing of nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles.

On the same day that a US citizen crossed the border, another historic and strategic symbolic moment took place in the South Korean port of Busan: for the first time since the early 1980s, an American submarine capable of carrying nuclear weapons entered the port.

The visit came when Kurt Campbell, Indo-Pacific Coordinator at the US National Security Council, attended the first meeting of the Nuclear Advisory Group (NCG) in Seoul.

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The NCG is a joint US-South Korean commission created by the leaders of the countries at the summit in Washington in April.

During the summit, US President Joe Biden and South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol released the "Washington Declaration", which included a set of measures aimed at making Pyongyang think twice before launching an attack on its southern neighbor.

Not the first time

This is not the first time detention of an American by North Korea. In 2016, 20-year-old student Otto Wombier was arrested at the Pyongyang airport after visiting North Korea. Three weeks later, an American student confessed to stealing a poster from a hotel.

In March 2016, Wombier was convicted of crimes against the state (this is how the DPRK authorities classified the theft of the poster) and was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

US officials advised his family not to make any statements while they were being negotiated for his release. For 15 months, the family did not hear about the guy.

In June, the 2017 North Korean government freed Otto wombiera, but he returned to Cincinnati with an extensive head injury that made him blind, deaf and unable to move on his own. He died 19 June 2017 of the year.

In December, a U.S. district court awarded the family of a deceased student $500 million in their lawsuit against North Korea. The family requested more than $1 billion, but the judge decided not to award them all of the requested compensation.

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