SEOUL — A senior officer with the UN Command said Monday officials have made their first contact with North Korea over the status of a deserting American soldier who dashed across the border into the North last week.
Yet, even as a general in Seoul today confirmed that contact has been established, no information about Private Travis King’s status has emerged, six days after his defection at the famed border village of Panmunjom.
British General Andrew Harrison, the deputy commander of the South Korea-based United Nations Command, confirmed in a briefing to reporters in Seoul today that communications have been established with military counterparts in North Korea.
“The conversation has commenced with the [North] Korean People’s Army through the mechanisms of the armistice agreement,” Gen. Harrison said, referring to the protocol that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. “I can’t say anything that could prejudice that process. … Much of this remains unknown.”
The North Koreans are believed to have answered the telephone in the Joint Security Area, or JSA, at Panmunjom but not responded to inquiries or entered discussions.
The telephone obviates the use of a bullhorn, with a soldier standing south of the border, reading out a message to the North Korean side. That process has been used as a one-way channel of communications in the past when the KPA declined to answer calls.
The defection drama plays out as tensions are once again rising between South Korea and its U.S. ally and the hostile regime in the north. North Korea reacted angrily to the news that a second U.S. nuclear-powered submarine had arrived at the South Korean southern island of Jeju on Monday, adding to the show of force from Seoul and Washington intended to counter North Korean nuclear threats.
In apparent response, Pyongyang fired two short-range ballistic missiles just before midnight Monday into its eastern sea, South Korea’s military said Tuesday, the third round of launches since last week. Jeju is considered highly strategic, as it commands the opening of the Yellow Sea and maintains major naval bases and naval shipyards on the sea’s coastline.
Private King had slipped into a civilian tour of the DMZ last week and ran across one of the world’s most dangerous frontiers before U.S. and South Korean guards could stop him.
Private King had slipped into a civilian tour of the DMZ last week and ran across one of the world’s most dangerous frontiers before U.S. and South Korean guards could stop him.
Private King, who had been detained in South Korea for assault and damaging a police car, faced dishonorable discharge and was being sent back to his base at Fort Bliss, Texas, when he slipped away from his minders. According to subsequent reports from the U.S., he was also disturbed by a recent death in his family.
The UN Command has oversight of the border’s Joint Security Area and oversees the manifests supplied by tour companies that visit. It is unclear why the command did not know, or had not been notified by US military officials in South Korea of the private’s troubled status when they permitted him to join a tour of the highly sensitive zone.
Pvt. King’s location and status are unknown and North Korean heavily controlled state media have not even mentioned his defection.
Reports here suggest that Private King has been taken by road to the capital of Pyongyang, an approximately two-hour drive north.
“I am not suggesting for any moment that I know,” of the GI’s location, Gen. Harrison said Monday. “…It is still subject to investigation. I am constrained by what I can say.”
There had been concerns that Pvt. King could have been shot out of hand given North Korea’s severe protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic. That fate befell a South Korean who, it is believed, attempted to defect via the Yellow Sea, in 2020.
For North Korea, a defecting American soldier could prove a propaganda windfall — or a burden given his surprise arrival and low military rank.
“He is not exactly the goose that lays golden eggs,” said an active-duty soldier familiar with the situation.
Still, some say the private’s life may not be so bad.
“I am not sure how welcome a man with possible psychological and other issues would be, but in general, North Korea — at least officially, as part of its constitution — offers political asylum,” said Felix Abt, a Swiss businessman who lived and worked in the country for seven years.
A handful of past U.S. military deserters who defected between the 1960s and the 1980s, were used as actors in North Korean propaganda, and lived — by North Korean standards — privileged lives in Pyongyang.
Mr. Abt said the defectors he bumped into in the city did not appear to be suffering hardships.
“Stories about life in North Korea vary greatly depending on who told them,” said Mr. Abt who has written a book about his business career in the North. “Living conditions are certainly much better today.”
Mr. Abt noted that in Pyongyang, formerly unknown foreign luxuries exist. On the culinary front, pizzerias, cafes and draft-beer restaurants are open for business; when it comes to leisure, western-style amusement parks and water parks beckon.
The capital is widely considered a showpiece and home for the elite. Multiple sources state that in the countryside, peasants lead malnourished, constricted and fearful lives.
There has been some speculation that Pvt. King could be employed as a bargaining chip by Pyongyang, but no negotiations are underway — or scheduled — with Washington. Pentagon officials said last week they are anxious to bring the private home.
The incident comes just days before the marking of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, which created the divided peninsula which exists to this day.
South Korea plans to mark with solemn ceremonies honoring the dead that will involve invited foreign war veterans, while the North, which celebrates “Victory Day” in the “Fatherland Liberation War,” is expected to stage a major military parade in Pyongyang as part of a national celebration.
Correction: A senior officer confirmed that a communications channel with North Korea has been opened over Private Travis King. An earlier version of this article misstated the body to which this officer belonged.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.
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