SEOUL, South Korea. An American soldier crossed the heavily armed border from South Korea into North Korea “willfully and without authorization,” U.S. officials said Tuesday, becoming the first American detained in the North in nearly five years amid heightened tensions over its nuclear program.
In a rare and concerning incident, an American soldier crossed the heavily fortified border from South Korea into North Korea without authorization, according to U.S. officials on Tuesday. The soldier’s motives and the circumstances surrounding the crossing have not been immediately disclosed. The four U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, revealed the information ahead of a formal public announcement.
The American-led U.N. Command, responsible for overseeing the area, tweeted earlier that the detained individual was an American citizen who was on a tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom. The U.S. military in South Korea released a statement confirming that the soldier had “willfully and without authorization” crossed the military demarcation line into North Korea. The soldier is believed to be in North Korean custody, and the U.N. Command is in communication with North Korean counterparts to resolve the situation.
Cases of Americans or South Koreans defecting to North Korea are uncommon, while over 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War to escape political oppression and economic challenges.
Panmunjom, located within the 248-kilometer (154-mile)-long Demilitarized Zone, has been jointly overseen by the U.N. Command and North Korea since the end of the Korean War. The area has witnessed occasional bloodshed and gunfire but has also served as a venue for numerous talks and remains a popular tourist destination.
Tours to the southern side of Panmunjom reportedly attracted around 100,000 visitors annually before the COVID-19 pandemic led South Korea to restrict gatherings. However, the tours fully resumed last year after pandemic-related restrictions were eased. In 2018, during a period of inter-Korean engagement, mine-clearing operations were conducted in Panmunjom to transform the village into a “peace zone,” allowing tourists from both sides to move around with more freedom.
In previous incidents, North Korean soldiers have fired on individuals attempting to defect to South Korea. However, the most infamous occurrence took place in August 1976 when two American army officers were killed by ax-wielding North Korean soldiers while attempting to trim a tree that obstructed the view from a checkpoint. In response to the attack, the United States dispatched nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to the DMZ to deter North Korea.
The armistice signed at Panmunjom to end the Korean War has not been replaced with a peace treaty, technically leaving the Korean Peninsula in a state of war. The United States currently maintains approximately 28,000 troops in South Korea.
While a small number of U.S. soldiers went to North Korea during the Cold War, defections of American civilians to the North have been rare. One notable case was Charles Jenkins, who deserted his army post in South Korea in 1965 and lived in North Korea for decades before dying in Japan in 2017.
In recent years, American civilians have been arrested in North Korea after allegedly entering the country from China, often facing charges of espionage and subversion. Past incidents of detainment have led to high-profile diplomatic missions securing the detainees’ release.
The most recent releases occurred in 2018 when North Korea freed three American detainees during a period of engagement with the United States. However, the diplomatic efforts ultimately collapsed, and tensions over North Korea’s missile tests have escalated since then.
The soldier’s crossing comes amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s continuous missile testing. In response, a U.S. nuclear-armed submarine visited South Korea on Tuesday for the first time in four decades, demonstrating deterrence against North Korea.
Note: The situation is developing, and further updates may follow as more details emerge.
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
