An American crossed the border into North Korea during a visit to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that separates it from its southern neighbor, and he was apparently placed under arrest, the UN announced on Tuesday. . “An American citizen crossed the demarcation line without authorization” with North Korea, while on a visit to the “common security zone”, the sector of the DMZ placed under the control of the United Nations, indicated the UN command post. “We believe he is currently in custody in the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and we are working with our APC (Korean People’s Army) counterparts to resolve this incident,” it said. stated from the same sources.
Hundreds of tourists daily visit the “Common Security Zone” as part of organized tours, located inside the DMZ that has separated the two Koreas for nearly 70 years. The Korean War (1950-1953) having ended in an armistice, and not by a peace agreement, the two neighbors are still, technically, in a state of war. Former US President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jung Un in 2019 in the border village of Panmunjom and even stepped on North Korean soil when crossing the demarcation line.
A US Army soldier
“Panmonjom is the most likely site that this American chose to cross into North Korea, as it is the only possible place of escape during the visit to the joint security area,” Choi told AFP. Gi-il, professor of military studies at Sangji University. According to the South Korean television channel SBS, the man who crossed the border is a soldier of the American army. Contacted by AFP, the South Korean Ministry of Defense declined to comment. North Korea closed its borders at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and has yet to reopen them. Its security presence on its side of the border at the “common security area” has also been significantly reduced.
When AFP visited the “Joint Security Area” earlier this year, no North Korean guards were visible in the area – but even in this configuration, under armistice protocols, South Korean personnel or American cannot cross the border to pick up the American national. Steve Tharp, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel who worked in the area, told Seoul-based news site NK News he had no idea how the North Koreans would react to the incident. : there is “so little data available” on events like this, he stressed.
“First contact since the Covid”
“It’s the first contact since Covid… We don’t know what they’re thinking,” he told NK News. The incident comes as relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest levels, with diplomacy at a standstill and the North Korean leader calling for increased development of weapons, including tactical nuclear weapons. Seoul and Washington have increased their military cooperation in response to missile tests, and held joint maneuvers with latest-generation fighters and strategic forces. These annual maneuvers must be repeated next month. The two countries are due to hold the first meeting of a Nuclear Consultative Group in Seoul on Tuesday, intended, according to the North Korean presidency, to “increase nuclear deterrence against North Korea”.
Washington, however, reiterated its offer of negotiations on Sunday, but the influential sister of Kim Jong Un described Monday as a “dream” the proposal for talks with the United States on the nuclear program of Pyongyang on the eve of this meeting. The number one North Korean described last year as “irreversible” the status of nuclear power of his country.