Pyongyang may have detained an American soldier on Wednesday, July 19 after crossing the inter-Korean border. An incident that threatens to further deteriorate relations between the United States and North Korea. Hours after the incident, Pyongyang fired two ballistic missiles into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of ​​Japan, according to the South Korean military.
• Incursion during a visit to the Demilitarized Zone
Travis King has been identified by the US Army and is an enlisted soldier since 2021 “voluntarily and without permission” The border between the two countries, technically still at war, was said by Col. Isaac Taylor, a spokesman for US Forces Korea, during a visit to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating north and south.
sequel after announcement
This guy loudly said “Ha-ha-ha-ha” and ran between the buildings. After the group visited one of the site’s buildings, a witness told CBS News. “At first I thought it was a bad joke but when it didn’t come back I realized it wasn’t a joke and then everyone responded and it was crazy”he said again.
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• Its exact location is still uncertain
Another US official told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that this soldier was supposedly being held in North Korea – which was confirmed by the UN command. We believe he is currently being held in the DPRK [Corée du Nord, NDLR] We are working with our counterparts in the North Korean People’s Army to resolve this incident.”The United Nations Command has already indicated.
We are closely monitoring the situation and investigating.US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters.
Contacted by AFP, the South Korean Defense Ministry declined to comment.
sequel after announcement
• Previously detained in South Korea
A South Korean official told AFP that Travis King has just spent two months in a South Korean prison. Soldier He was released on July 10 after spending nearly two months in a South Korean prison for assault.specially.
There is nothing the North Koreans want to hide.
According to information from CBS television, citing US officials, he was due to be repatriated to the US for disciplinary reasons, but managed to leave the airport and join a group of visitors to the DMZ.
• “First contact since Covid »
Hundreds of tourists every day, within the framework of organized excursions, go inside “common security zone” (JSA), located within the demilitarized zone that separated the two Koreas nearly 70 years ago. After the Korean War (1950-1953) ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, the neighbors are still, technically speaking, at war.
Former US President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2019 in the border village of Panmunjom, and even stepped on North Korean territory when crossing the demarcation line.
sequel after announcement
North Korea closed its borders with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has yet to reopen them. Its security presence on its side of the border has been greatly reduced.
Steve Tharp, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel who worked in the area, admitted to NK News, a Seoul specialist, that he had no idea how the North Koreans would react. On this incident: there ‘Very little data available’ In such events, he pointed out. “This is the first contact since Covid […]. We don’t know what they’re thinking.”he told NK News.
• Context tension
The case comes at a time when diplomatic relations between the two Koreas have stalled. Kim Jong-un called for the development of weapons in the North, including tactical nuclear weapons.
South Korea and the United States have stepped up their military cooperation in response to North Korean missile tests, particularly joint exercises involving the latest generation of combat aircraft and strategic forces.
sequel after announcement
The war of Ukraine, Iran and North Korea… 2023 and the establishment of chaos
The two countries held the first meeting of the Nuclear Advisory Group in Seoul on Tuesday and announced that a US nuclear submarine was on its way to Pusan, in the southern part of South Korea, for the first time since 1981.
In 1976, two American soldiers were killed “common security zone” by North Koreans armed with axes during an argument over a tree.
