North Korea Responded to UN Command on US Soldier Who Crossed Border: Official

Flags of North Korea, rear, and South Korea, front, flutter in the wind at the border area between the countries in Paju, South Korea, on Aug. 9, 2021. Im Byung-shik/Yonhap via AP

North Korea has responded to United Nations Command’s request for information about a U.S. soldier who illegally dashed across the country’s heavily guarded border with South Korea, a U.S. official said on Aug. 1.

The soldier has been identified as Pvt. Travis King, 23. He was on a tour of the Joint Security Area on the border of the village of Panmunjom when he suddenly sprinted to the Korean border on July 18.

Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said he can “confirm that the DPRK has responded to United Nations Command” regarding Mr. King’s illicit crossing into North Korea but didn’t elaborate.

DPRK stands for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

“United Nations Command did communicate or provide some communication via well-established communication channels through the Joint Security Agency,” he told reporters. “But I don’t have any substantial progress to read out.”

When asked about North Korea’s response, Brig. Gen. Ryder said the response from North Korea was just an “acknowledgment” of the U.N. Command’s inquiry regarding the soldier. No further details were provided.

“There was the initial passing of the information, and this was essentially an acknowledgment from the DPRK government that, ‘yes, we have received your request for information,’ as I understand it,” he said.

Pvt. King was a cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division who had served nearly two months in a South Korean prison for assault. He was released on July 10 and was to travel home on July 17 to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he could have faced additional military discipline and discharge from the service.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that Pvt. King had “willfully and without authorization” crossed the military demarcation line separating the two Koreas.

The soldier is believed to be in North Korean custody. U.S. officials are investigating the situation and “working to notify the soldier’s next of kin and engaging to address this incident,” he added.

‘Not the Type to Just Disappear’

However, Pvt. King’s sister, Jaqueda Gates, told CNN that she refused to believe that her brother would defect from the U.S. military and said that her brother is “not the type to just disappear.”

“So that’s why I feel like the story is deeper than that,” Ms. Gates told the news agency on Aug. 3. “I don’t believe that [he just] vanished and ran away.”

While more than 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea to avoid political oppression and economic difficulties since the end of the 1950–1953 Korean War, cases of Americans or South Koreans defecting to North Korea are rare.

A witness who was on the tour told CBS News that they had just visited one of the buildings when a “man gives out a loud ‘ha ha ha,’ and just runs in between some buildings.” The witness said the organizers of the tour didn’t immediately react and appeared to be confused.

“I thought it was a bad joke at first, but when he didn’t come back, I realized it wasn’t a joke, and then everybody reacted, and things got crazy,” the unnamed witness said. “It was on the way back in the bus, and we got to one of the checkpoints ... someone said we were 43 going in and 42 coming back.”

Panmunjom, located inside the 154-mile-long Demilitarized Zone, has been jointly overseen by the U.N. Command and North Korea since its creation at the close of the Korean War. Bloodshed and gunfire have occasionally occurred there, but it has also been a venue for numerous talks and is a popular tourist spot.

Jack Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report.