North Korea detained a U.S. citizen who crossed the border from South Korea, the United Nations said Tuesday.
The American was on a tour of the Joint Security Area, an area that is closely guarded by the militaries of both North and South Korea.
“A U.S. National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the U.N. Command tweeted.
The tweet added that they believe the American is now in North Korean custody and that they are working with the North Korean military to “resolve this incident.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat who visited the area on a congressional trip in 2021, said on CNN it seems unlikely that the border crossing was accidental, noting that the Joint Security Area is “one of the most constrained areas in the world.”
“It’s hard to imagine that somebody really mistakenly wandered off,” she said.
Although South Korean and U.S. soldiers keep a close eye on those who visit, the border between the Koreas in the Joint Security Area in the Panmunjom so-called truce village is marked only a few inches off the ground and easy to cross.
The North Korean military presence has dropped significantly in the JSA since the pandemic started.
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(With assistance from Jon Herskovitz)
