North Korea arrests US soldier who crossed the border from the demilitarized zone without authorization
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North Korea has likely arrested a US soldier who crossed the border from the inter-Korean demilitarized zone without authorization.
The United Nations Command said Tuesday that they now believe the US national to be in North Korean custody of North Korean officials.
The person was taking part in a tour to the Joint Security Area, the border village in the demilitarize zone separating the two Koreas where soldiers from both sides stand guard.
‘A U.S. National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),’ the U.N. Command said on Twitter.
‘We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident,’ it added, referring to North Korea’s People’s Army.
United Nations Command soldiers (right) and a South Korean soldier (left) stand guard before North Korea’s Panmon Hall and the military demarcation line separating North and South Korea
The Military Demarcation Line marks the border between North and South Korea and has been in place since the Armistice signed in July 1953.
The Korean Demilitarized Zone sits either side of the border, stretching 2km each way.
It came as the US earlier deployed a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea for the first time in four decades.
It comes as the allies warned North Korea that any use of the North’s nuclear weapons in combat would result in the end of its regime.
Periodic visits by US nuclear ballistic missile-capable submarines to South Korea were one of several agreements reached by the two countries’ presidents in April in response to North Korea’s expanding nuclear threat.
They also agreed to establish a bilateral Nuclear Consultative Group and expand military exercises.
The USS Kentucky, an Ohio-class submarine, arrived at the South Korean port of Busan on Tuesday afternoon, South Korea’s defence ministry said.
It is the first visit by a US nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea since the 1980s, it said.
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