US soldier detained in North Korea: What you need to know 

An American soldier has been detained in North Korea after “willfully” crossing into the country, throwing a curveball into Washington-Pyongyang relations amid heightened nuclear tensions. 

North Korea has been ratcheting up its nuclear weapons provocations in recent months, and the incident came just as the U.S. made a rare docking of a nuclear-capable submarine at a South Korean naval base. 

The American soldier has been identified as junior enlisted soldier Private 2nd Class Travis King. Army spokesperson Bryce Dubee said King has been a Cavalry Scout in the service since January 2021 and had earned a number of awards including the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Defense Service Medal and Overseas Service Ribbon.

He was reportedly returning to the U.S. from South Korea for disciplinary reasons, but managed to leave the airport and join a tour of the demilitarized zone with North Korea where he ran across the border. He is now believed to be in the custody of Pyongyang. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that the soldier “willfully and without authorization” crossed the military demarcation line. Austin said that U.S. officials are “closely monitoring and investigating the situation and working to notify the soldier’s next of kin and engaging to address this incident.”

“I’m absolutely foremost concerned about the welfare of our troops. And so we will remain focused on this,” the secretary said.  

What is the DMZ?

The boundary line between South and North Korea runs about 154-miles-long, where hostilities between the two countries are frozen in an armistice signed in 1953 and centered in the border town of Panmunjom, where neither side has direct sovereignty.

“It’s an active war zone,” a Republican aide to the House Foreign Affairs Committee told The Hill.

“The only reason that there aren’t as many flare ups as you would normally hear in an active warzone, on the DMZ, is because both sides have agreed to very strict rules of engagement,” said the aide, who has visited the area twice.  

Movement is strictly monitored by authorized tour guides, with visitors instructed to stand or walk only in certain areas. 

Former President Trump made history by stepping over a small slab of concrete from South Korea into North Korea in 2019 as part of failed efforts to advance peace talks or curb Pyongyang’s weapons program. 

Despite the carefully orchestrated tours, there are no physical barriers to prevent people from crossing the border, said Markus Garlauskas, the director of the new Indo-Pacific Security Initiative of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council.

“As a result, it is possible for a member of a tour group at the JSA to run to the other side before they can be stopped,” he said, noting past incidents in which North Korean guards fired on defectors in the zone. 

Tense time for U.S.-North Korea relations

The U.S. soldier’s crossing over into Pyongyang came on the same day that the U.S. docked a nuclear-capable submarine, the USS Kentucky, at a port in Bosun, South Korea — viewed as a strong signal of deterrence against North Korea.  

“This is [the] first time since 1991 the U.S. has had nuclear weapons in South Korea, and first SSBN [Ballistic Missile Submarines] visit since 1981,” tweeted Hans Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project for the Federation of American Scientists.

He added that the U.S. submarine is “loaded with more nukes than North Korea has in its entire arsenal.”

The U.S. and North Korea are in a standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. 

The isolated East-Asian nation is designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism and under an intensive sanctions regime targeting its military activity and human rights abuses – ranging from labor and concentration camps to widespread starvation and illness.  

The North Koreans have refused offers by the Biden administration to engage in unconditional talks, and rejected unconditional humanitarian assistance jointly offered by the U.S. and South Korea. 

In addition to U.S. sanctions, North Korea is under a sanctions regime by the United Nations for its illicit nuclear weapons program. 

The country has been led by Kim Jung-un, 39, since 2011, and he has catapulted the country’s nuclear arsenal and missile stockpile from being a threat to the U.S. to having the ability for a direct hit on American cities. 

“It’s very clear that North Koreans see no value in speaking with the United States or any other western country at this moment,” the Republican aide said.

“Generally, we’re nervous about the ongoing ballistic missile and nuclear tests. They have gotten more aggressive… and there’s always rumors that they’re going to be testing another nuclear weapon. I don’t think we’ve seen that yet. But they are clearly moving towards it.”

President Biden has focused on deepening relations with Asia-Pacific allies to counter the threat from Pyongyang, in particular with South Korea and that was put on full display with the state visit of President Yoon Suk Yeol to Washington in April. 

Yoon has taken a hard line against Pyongyang. In a speech to Congress during his April visit, Yoon promoted South Korea as a linchpin of security in the era of increased tensions in the Indo-Pacific. 

“Together with the U.S., Korea will play the role as a compass for freedom. It will safeguard and broaden the freedom of citizens of the world,” Yoon said. 

“But even as we walk in unison for freedom for 70 years, there is one regime determined to pursue a wrong path: that is North Korea.” 

Hostage diplomacy

“It’s always concerning when there’s an American in North Korea because of the human rights atrocities,” the Republican aide said, “but it’s always even more concerning when it’s a servicemember as well.”

While U.S. officials said they are working with the Korean People’s Army, North Korea’s military, to “resolve this incident,” it’s not yet clear how North Korea could seek to exploit its holding of a U.S. soldier. 

Pyongyang has previously used American detainees to draw concessions from Washington, ranging from calls for sanctions relief to symbolic moves of international recognition.

“Unfortunately, U.S. citizens detained in North Korea are typically used by the Kim regime as bargaining chips, which is part of the reason why travel by US citizens to North Korea was banned,” Garlauskas said. 

Former President Clinton traveled to North Korea in 2009 to secure the release of American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

In 2017, Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old American college student who was arrested for stealing a propaganda poster, was released by North Korea in a vegetative state and died shortly after being transferred back to the U.S. 

The Washington Post reported at the time that former President Trump approved for his envoy retrieving Warmbier to sign a pledge to North Korea to pay a $2 million hospital fee — even as Trump has denied following through on the payment. 

The last such incident was in 2018 when North Korea detained Bruce Byron Lowrance for about a month after he illegally entered the country from China. 

The Biden administration has sought to deter countries from taking American’s prisoners as international hostages, signing an executive order to help develop policies that would increase the costs on hostage takers and streamline the U.S. response to working towards their freedom.

But with U.S. officials proclaiming quickly that the American soldier crossed into North Korea “willfully,” it’s unclear how the government will characterize his case. 

State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the Pentagon is taking the lead on contacting other governments over the fate of the U.S. soldier.  

“At this point the State Department has not reached out to the North Koreans or other governments. It is our understanding that the Pentagon has reached out to their counterparts of the DPRK, they are the lead agency and I would defer to them to comment on the nature of those contacts,” Miller said.

“We will stay in close coordination with them [the Pentagon] over the next hours and if there are steps that would be useful for the State Department to take we of course would not hesitate to take them.”

Ellen Mitchell contributed to this report.