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South Korean and American soldiers stand guard at the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom in October 2022. (AFP/Yonhap)

The White House and the US Department of Defense have acknowledged that they are reaching out to North Korea after having confirmed that a US Army soldier crossed into North Korea at Panmunjom.

During a press conference on Tuesday (local time), US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated, “What we do know is that one of our service members, who was on a tour, willfully and without authorization crossed the Military Demarcation Line. We believe that he is in DPRK custody.”

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

“We’re closely monitoring and investigating the situation and working to notify the soldier’s next of kin, and engaging to address this incident,” Austin added.

“I am absolutely foremost concerned about the welfare of our troop, and so we will remain focused on this. And again, this will develop in the next several days, and we’ll keep you posted.”

During a press briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “The Department of Defense, as I mentioned yesterday, has been engaged and having communications with its counterparts — the KPA [Korean People’s Army] — on the well-being of Private King.”

“That includes what we’re doing as outreach to the administration of Sweden — and also to South Korea as well on this matter,” Jean-Pierre added.

When asked whether Kurt Campbell, the White House National Security Council’s coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs, would be involved in the effort to repatriate the soldier, Jean-Pierre said she did not have “anything to share about specific individuals’ involvement.” Campbell is currently in Seoul to attend the first meeting of the South Korea-US Nuclear Consultative Group.

Jean-Pierre went on to say that “the White House, the Department of Defense, State Department, and, certainly, the UN are all involved.”

Taken together, the explanations suggest the UN Command is working under US military leadership to contact the North Korean military. The pursuit of communication with Pyongyang by way of the South Korean government also suggests that the cooperation of the Swedish Embassy in North Korea has been sought, as it performs the role of a mission for US interests in Pyongyang.

US news outlets identified the soldier who defected as Army Pvt. Travis King. US military officials were quoted as saying that he had been released a week earlier after nearly two months of incarceration at a South Korean detention facility on assault charges.

King was reportedly supposed to fly out of Incheon International Airport in order to face additional disciplinary action in a military facility in Texas. He had been escorted to security screening in the airport, but was able to leave the airport and reportedly joined a tour headed to Panmunjom. No details have been reported about how an individual being extradited back to his country of origin was able to join a tour group.

One witness said that King was laughing as he darted across the border.

What impact this incident will have on dialogue between North Korea and the US is drawing interest, as there’s precedent for contact between the two when it comes to American citizens detained in North Korea. There have been a handful of cases in which high-status Americans visiting North Korea have brought home US citizens detained in the North.

Mike Pompeo, the former US secretary of state, returned from a trip to Pyongyang in May 2018, where he was preparing for the first US-North Korea summit that would take place the following month, accompanied by three US citizens. Former President Bill Clinton, too, returned from a trip to North Korea in 2009 with two US journalists who had been detained there. The next year, former President Jimmy Carter returned with another US citizen.

But all these cases took the form of a gesture of good faith when a former US president or senior US official met with the leader of North Korea amid thawing bilateral ties, or North Korea making an active effort to ease tensions.

As fate would have it, this time an American crossed into North Korea on the day that South Korea and the US held their first meeting of the Nuclear Consultative Group and an American strategic nuclear submarine arrived in South Korea for the first time in 42 years. North Korea protested these events by firing two ballistic missiles over the East Sea on Wednesday.

With this most recent incident occurring amid high tensions and taking into consideration that King voluntarily absconded to avoid disciplinary action, it’s unlikely that the incident will jumpstart any improvement or relations or play a symbolic role.

The most recent example of an American willfully crossing into North Korea was Bruce Byron Lawrence, who was apprehended after crossing the border between North Korea and China in October 2018. Amid ongoing denuclearization talks with the US following their summit that June, the North deported Lawrence after just a month, for which the US expressed gratitude.

By Lee Bon-young, Washington correspondent

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