U.S. and North Korea Start Talking About U.S. Soldier Who Crossed the Border

SEOUL—The United Nations Command has begun talking with North Korea about an American soldier who crossed the border from South Korea without authorization last week, the deputy commander said Monday.

British Army Lieutenant General Andrew Harrison told a briefing on Monday that conversations have begun through a communication line established under the armistice agreement that ended combat in the 1950-53 Korean War. 

Private 2nd Class Travis King, 23 years old, has been detained in North Korea since he crossed the border while on a tour last Tuesday of the Joint Security Area, part of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas. 

“The primary concern for us is Private King’s welfare,” Lt. Gen. Harrison said. He said he remains optimistic, but declined to provide details on the talks, citing their sensitivity. 

The day before he crossed the border, King had been set to fly Texas for disciplinary actions and a potential discharge following two alleged assaults last year, officials said last week. He had been held at a detention facility in South Korea for 47 days.

North Korea has said nothing publicly about King. 

Lt. Gen. Harrison first confirmed that the U.N. Command had made contact with North Korea in an interview with the Times of London published Saturday. U.N. Command staff members, who are mostly U.S. military, call their North Korean counterparts twice daily through a phone link established as part of an agreement meant to reduce the risk of war. But North Korea hadn’t been responding since King crossed the border, U.S. officials said.

King’s crossing has raised questions about the U.S. military’s handling of personnel at overseas bases. He had been escorted to Incheon Airport last Monday by U.S. service members, who left after King passed through security checkpoints. King told airline staff he couldn’t locate his passport and slipped out of the airport. He headed to the Joint Security Area as part of a tour group the next day. 

A spokesman for the U.S. Forces Korea, which oversees the 28,500 American military personnel stationed in the country, said the incident remains under investigation. 

King allegedly assaulted a South Korean citizen last September and the next month was involved in another assault and damaged a police car by kicking it, for which he was fined $4,000. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth speculated at a news conference last Thursday that King had been grappling with the consequences he would face upon returning to the U.S.

North Korea watchers say King’s voluntary entry into the country may make winning his release difficult. In the past, North Korea has used defections by U.S. soldiers as a propaganda opportunity, portraying Americans as growing disenchanted with capitalism. Army Sgt. Charles Jenkins, who deserted his post in South Korea and fled to the North in 1965, became a familiar figure in North Korean films, cast as a capitalist villain. 

North Korea has refused to engage in dialogue with the U.S. since nuclear talks collapsed in Hanoi in 2019. In recent weeks, high-level North Korean officials have released statements lashing out at Washington for deploying to South Korea such strategic assets as the USS Kentucky, a nuclear-capable submarine. Last Thursday, North Korea’s defense minister warned that the sub’s presence could be grounds for Pyongyang to use nuclear weapons. 

On Monday, the USS Annapolis, a nuclear-propelled U.S. submarine, arrived at a port on South Korea’s Jeju Island as an additional show of force against North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threats. A spokesman for South Korea’s navy said the U.S. and South Korea were discussing whether to involve the submarine in training. 

Write to Dasl Yoon at [email protected]