A U.S. soldier has been detained in North Korea after crossing over the border into the country without permission during a tour of the Joint Security Area.
The U.S. citizen was visiting the border village of Panmunjom in the 154-mile-long demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea when the incident occurred, the United Nations Command said in a statement on Tuesday. The area, which is overseen by North Korea and the U.N. Command, is a popular tourist destination.
“A U.S. Service member on a JSA orientation tour willfully and without authorization crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident,” Col. Isaac Taylor of USFK public affairs said in a statement.
U.S. secretary of defense Lloyd Austin reiterated the USFK’s statement when asked about the detained soldier during a press conference at the conclusion of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting.
“I’m absolutely foremost concern 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 hours and we’ll keep you posted,” Austin said.
Two unnamed U.S. officials identified the soldier as Private 2nd Class Travis King, the Associated Press reported. King had been released from a South Korean prison where he was being held on assault charges. He was also facing additional military disciplinary actions in the U.S., according to the report.
King was escorted from the prison to the airport to catch a flight to Fort Bliss, Texas. However, King left the airport and joined a tour of Panmunjom, where he ran across the border into North Korea.
The incident comes years after Otto Warmbier, then a University of Virginia honors student, was detained after he stole a propaganda banner from a hotel while visiting Pyongyang in January 2016. He was charged with a “hostile act” against North Korea’s government and was convicted less than two months later after a one-hour trial.
He was not returned to the United States until June 2017. He came back in a coma and died shortly after. North Korea claimed Warmbier died of botulism, but he showed no signs of the illness and an MRI showed extensive brain damage and signs that his brain was starved of oxygen at some point.