A South Korean soldier in Panmunjom guards the border with North Korea on December 03, 2019.
Stephan Schulz | image alliance by way of Getty Photographs
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Tuesday stated it was conscious {that a} U.S. servicemember “willfully” and “with out authorization” crossed the inter-Korean border and is at present in North Korean custody.
U.S. authorities are working with North Korea’s navy “to resolve this incident,” U.S. Forces Korea spokesman Col. Isaac Taylor stated in a press release.
The particular person was touring the Joint Safety Space, or JSA, a web site at Panmunjom within the Demilitarized Zone utilized by North and South Korea for diplomatic engagements and negotiations. It’s bisected by the Army Demarcation Line, also called the Armistice Line, which acts because the border between the 2 territories. Each non-public firms and the United Nations manage excursions of the JSA.
The id of the servicemember shall be launched after subsequent of kin are notified.
A State Division spokesperson referred inquiries to the Pentagon. The spokesperson stated the State Division was “in contact with counterparts on the Division of Protection to supply all acceptable help.”
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.
The U.S. and North Korea don’t at present have formal diplomatic relations. The State Division advises U.S. nationals to not journey to North Korea “as a consequence of the persevering with severe threat of arrest and long-term detention.”
The incident takes place on the identical day a U.S. nuclear submarine visited South Korea for the primary time because the Nineteen Eighties, arriving on the port of Busan, in keeping with the U.S. forces in South Korea.
