SEOUL (AFP) – The United Nations (UN) Command has started a conversation with Pyongyang over American soldier Travis King, who ran across the border into North Korea last week, its deputy commander said yesterday.
“A conversation has commenced with the Korean People’s Army (KPA) through the mechanism of the armistice agreement,” Lieutenant General Andrew Harrison said at a press briefing, referring to North Korea’s military, the KPA.
The UN Command is a United States (US)-led multinational force that oversees the Korean War truce.
The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty. “The primary concern for us is for Private King’s welfare,” Harrison said, adding that the incident was “still subject to investigation”. Harrison said that, under the armistice agreement, there was a mechanism allowing the UN Command to communicate with the North’s military in the Joint Security Area (JSA).
“That process has started” but due to the “very delicate nature of these negotiations” he said he would not go into further detail.
“Obviously there is someone’s welfare at stake and clearly we are in a very difficult and complex situation which I don’t want to risk by speculation or going into too much detail about the communications that have existed.” The US does not have formal diplomatic ties with the North and, since North Korea closed its borders at the start of the pandemic, most embassies with a presence in Pyongyang have withdrawn their foreign diplomats. North Korea has not commented publicly on King.
Private Second Class King was being escorted to Seoul’s airport last week and was due to fly to Texas after a drunken bar brawl, an altercation with police and a stint in South Korean jail.
But instead of getting on the plane to face disciplinary hearings at Fort Bliss, King slipped away, joined a tourist tour of the Demilitarised Zone and fled across the border. He is now believed to be in North Korean custody.
