SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea remained silent Wednesday on the status of a US soldier who “escaped” across the inter-Korean border into the isolated communist country a day earlier, as more details emerged about the soldier from 23 years in the Army. .
Meanwhile, nuclear-armed North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles eastward from its west coast early Wednesday local time, South Korea and Japan said.
Private 2nd Class Travis King is in North Korean custody after crossing the heavily fortified border “deliberately and without authorization,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on Tuesday.
King, who had recently been released from a South Korean prison, had been escorted by the military to Incheon International Airport on the outskirts of the capital Seoul for possible further disciplinary action in the United States.
But instead of heading to his door, a senior administration official told NBC News, he joined a commercial tour group headed for the Joint Security Area. The truce town, also known as Panmunjom, is an hour and a half from the airport and is the only place along the roughly 155-mile Demilitarized Zone where North and South Korea interact.
Sarah Leslie, a tourist from New Zealand who was in King’s group, said the tour was drawing to a close and the group was “circling” under the watchful eyes of South Korean and US soldiers, as soldiers from the North Korean side appeared. . be inside a building.
Suddenly, he noticed a man “running what seemed like full throttle toward the North Korean side,” he told The Associated Press.
South Korean and American soldiers ordered the rest of the group inside and chased after King, but were unable to catch him.
“Everyone was stunned and shocked,” Leslie said. “There were some people who hadn’t even realized what was going on.”
King was fined 5 million won ($3,950) in February by a Seoul court on charges including damaging public property, according to South Korean court documents. He was accused of repeatedly kicking a police car in Seoul last year, causing several hundred dollars in damage.
He was uncooperative when officers detained him at the scene and was yelling profanity about Koreans and the Korean military.
King has been serving in the Army since January 2021, according to US Army spokesman Bryce Dubee. He was a cavalry scout assigned to the 1st Armored Division, The Associated Press reported, and had served nearly two months in a South Korean prison for assault.
King is the first known American to be detained in North Korea since Bruce Byron Lowrance, who was captured after entering from neighboring China in October 2018 and deported several weeks later. He appears to be the first US soldier to defect to North Korea in more than 50 years.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday that the United States, which has no official relations with North Korea, was “engaging” in King with South Korea and Sweden, whose embassy represents US interests. in the country.
“Our primary concern at this time is determining his well-being and getting to the bottom of what exactly happened,” he said.
North Korea has not mentioned the border crossing in its state media, but continued on Wednesday with weapons tests that have accelerated since last year.
The missiles launched by North Korea between 3 and 4 a.m. local time (2 to 3 p.m. Tuesday ET) landed on the eastern Korean peninsula outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, and there were no reports of damage. to aircraft or vessels in the area, according to the Japanese Defense Ministry.
They reached maximum altitudes of about 30 miles and flew distances of up to about 370 miles, the ministry said.
North Korea has in recent days expressed opposition to US and South Korean plans to create a Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) aimed at improving their coordination in the event of a nuclear war with the North, as well as a rare visit to South Korea by a US nuclear-armed submarine. The first NCG meeting and the arrival of the submarine took place on Tuesday.
Despite international sanctions, North Korea has been stepping up its nuclear and missile programs amid stalled denuclearization negotiations. Last week, North Korea tested the Hwasong-18, a solid-fueled ICBM capable of reaching the mainland US.
North Korea’s missile launches on Wednesday are “probably not related” to King’s border crossing, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, “but such an incident doesn’t help either.”
“The border crosser is likely to be treated by the Kim regime as a public health, intelligence and military threat, although such an individual is more likely to be mentally distressed and acting impulsively due to personal issues,” Easley said in an email. electronic. “Such unexpected events highlight the need for diplomatic channels between governments and regular communication between the military.”
The United States has about 28,000 troops stationed in South Korea, an allied treaty that has remained frozen in conflict with the North since the Korean War ended in an armistice instead of a peace treaty 70 years ago this month.
The State Department has banned Americans from traveling to North Korea since 2017, when college student Otto Warmbier died days after returning to the United States in a coma after 18 months in North Korean detention. He had been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor after being accused of trying to steal a propaganda poster from the wall of his hotel in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, where he was on a group tour.
Stella Kim reported from Seoul, Jennifer Jett and Larissa Gao reported from Hong Kong.
