North Korea is reportedly not answering calls from the US regarding the fate of a missing American soldier who is understood to be in the east Asian country under bizarre circumstances.
Travis T King, 23, was on a civilian tour of the village of Panmunjom between the two Koreas, when he split from his group and bolted into North Korean territory on Tuesday.
US officials have been attempting to contact Pyongyang, but there has reportedly been no response.
Meanwhile, further details have come to light regarding the unusual series of events that led up to Mr King’s dash across the border.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a briefing on Thursday the Pentagon had “reached out” to counterparts in North Korea’s Korean People’s Army about Mr King.
“My understanding is that those communications have not yet been answered,” he added.
US special envoy for North Korea Sung Kim said the United States was “working very hard” to determine King’s status and wellbeing and is actively engaged in ensuring his safety and return.
North Korea’s state media, which in the past reported on the detention of US nationals, have also not commented on the incident so far.
It has emerged Mr King was fined for assault while stationed in South Korea, and served detention before he was being escorted to the airport on Monday to board an American Airlines flight to Texas, according to a media report and an airport official.
Mr King, who joined the US Army in 2021, had already passed security checks and was at the departure gate when he told airline staff he had lost his passport and returned to the terminal, the airport official told news agency Reuters on the condition of anonymity.
Civilian tours of the demilitarised zone which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice are reportedly advertised at the airport.
On Tuesday, Mr King was with a group of about 40 on a full-day tour of the zone when he crossed through the heavily fortified border into North Korea.
Mr King made a dash between the blue buildings that straddle the border and ran over the line, a witness who was on the same tour said.
“Someone ran close to me very fast and I thought, ‘What is going on?’,” eyewitness Sarah Leslie from New Zealand told Reuters. “I don’t think anyone who was sane would want to go to North Korea, so I assumed it was some kind of stunt.”
The incident has landed Washington in a new diplomatic quandary, at a time of already heightened tension on the Korean peninsula as the North presses on with ballistic missile tests. Last week, North Korea launched its newest solid-fuel intercontinental missile, which it said had the longest flight time ever - in a test experts described as a “remarkable” success.
Mr King’s mother, Claudine Gates, of Racine in Wisconsin, told ABC News on Wednesday she had last heard from her son “a few days ago” prior to the incident, and just wants “him to come home.”
State Department spokesman Miller said Sweden has been engaged as it acts as a diplomatic channel for Washington, which remains technically at war with North Korea.
“We are still trying to gather information here about the whereabouts of Private King,” he said. “The administration has and will continue to actively work to ensure his safety and return him home to his family.”.
North Korea has previously detained Americans who entered the country and put them on trial but eventually released them, often following high-level diplomatic intervention. But incidents involving US servicemen have been rare.
In a case that remains unexplained, an American college student Otto Warmbier was held for more than a year. He was returned to the United States in a coma and died days later.
