U.S. soldier defects to North Korea at border: UN Command

A U.S. soldier crossed into North Korea “willfully and without authorization” through the Joint Security Area (JSA) on the inter-Korean border on Tuesday, according to U.S. and international officials.

South Korean soldiers stand guard during a media tour at the Joint Security Area (JSA) on the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea in this file photo dated March 3. [AP]

A U.S. soldier crossed into North Korea “willfully and without authorization” through the Joint Security Area (JSA) on the inter-Korean border on Tuesday, according to U.S. and international officials.

The soldier is the seventh U.S. service member to have willingly crossed over to the North, and the sixth to do so via the demilitarized zone (DMZ), along which the JSA is located.

The soldier had recently been released from detention in South Korea on assault charges and was due to face military disciplinary action in the United States, according to multiple U.S. officials.

Despite being escorted to the airport and going through immigration security, the soldier managed to return and join a tour group headed to the JSA, officials said.

The United Nations Command, which is responsible for managing the JSA, said in its initial statement that “a U.S. National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea [DPRK],” referring to the North by its official name.

The command said the U.S. citizen was “in DPRK custody,” adding that it was communicating with the North Korean military to “resolve this incident.”

Speaking at a press conference at the Pentagon on Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that a U.S. soldier was now likely being held by the North.

“We’re closely monitoring and investigating the situation and working to notify the soldier’s next of kin,” Austin said.

Defections of Americans or South Koreans to the North Korea are rare in comparison to the 33,981 North Koreans who have managed to escape to the South since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Border crossings via the JSA, also known as Panmunjom, are even rarer, with the last known instance being that of North Korean soldier in 2017 who drove a car to the border until it crashed, then sprinted across the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) dividing the two Koreas under a hail of gunfire from the North.

The JSA is best known for its blue huts, which straddle a continuous line of concrete slabs that form the MDL, and images of South and North Korean soldiers facing off only a few feet from each other.

The area was established toward the end of the war in 1953 as a neutral enclave and venue for ceasefire negotiations and implementation of the armistice.

As the most prominent symbol of Korea’s partition and the site where the armistice was signed, the truce village draws thousands of visitors from both sides, and tours from South Korea run by the United Nations Command attracted around 100,000 visitors annually before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The North Korean border guards have not been seen outdoors at the JSA since the pandemic began, although tours from the South Korean side fully resumed last year.

While visitors to the JSA today are warned by guards not to stray too close to the MDL, the approximately 800-meter- (875-yard-) wide circular area was originally open to free movement by both sides within its bounds.

But after North Korean soldiers wielding axes murdered two U.S. military officers who had been tasked with pruning a tree that obstructed the view from a checkpoint in 1976, the concrete MDL was installed, effectively ending military cohabitation in the zone.

BY ESTHER CHUNG,MICHAEL LEE [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]