UN now communicating with North Korea about detained US soldier
Mike Brest
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The United Nations Command, led by the United States, began conversations with Pyongyang on Monday regarding the U.S. soldier who ran across the border from South Korea to North Korea last week.
Pvt. 2nd Class Travis King, who has been a cavalry scout with the Army since January 2021, was supposed to fly home to the U.S. after serving two months in prison on assault charges, but he didn’t get on the flight, choosing to cross into North Korea seemingly on his own volition.
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“None of us know where this is going to end,” Andrew Harrison, the deputy commander at the U.N. Command, said during a news conference in Seoul, according to the Associated Press. “I am in life an optimist, and I remain optimistic. But again, I will leave it at that.”
He declined to say how their communication with North Korea, which had not been responsive to U.S. outreach, began or how constructively Pyongyang had responded. Harrison also declined to share what they know about King’s condition, and he said the contact happened through “mechanisms” developed during the U.N. Command’s creation in the 1950s.
Publicly, North Korean officials have not mentioned King, who was supposed to fly to Fort Bliss, Texas, following his release from a local prison for an assault conviction and brief stay under U.S. supervision.
A number of Biden administration agencies are attempting to get more information on King, though several details — such as King’s motives, well-being, and location — remain unknown. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said King “willfully and without authorization” crossed the military demarcation line.
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King’s decision to cross the militarized border comes at a tense time on the Korean Peninsula, during which North Korea has continued its weapons testing while the U.S. has responded with combined military exercises. The USS Kentucky became the first U.S. nuclear-armed submarine to come to South Korea since the 1980s when it arrived last week.
On Monday, the South Korean Joint Chiefs said the North Korean military fired a possible ballistic missile into the eastern sea.