SEOUL – North Korea has “responded” to the United Nations Command’s efforts to talk about American soldier Travis King, who crossed the border into North Korea last month and is thought to be detained by Pyongyang, the Command said on Thursday.
The multinational army overseeing the Korean War truce, led by the United States, announced in a statement that Pyongyang’s military “has responded to the United Nations Command with regard to Private King.”
“We will not go into details at this time to avoid interfering with our efforts to bring him home,” it continued.
The current announcement comes more than a week after the UN Command announced that it had begun talks with the North concerning the soldier.
Private Second Class King was being transported to the airport last month to fly back to Texas after a drunken pub brawl, an altercation with police, and a spell in South Korean jail.
Instead of attending disciplinary hearings at Fort Bliss, King stole away, joined a Demilitarised Zone sightseeing excursion, and crossed the border.
The two Koreas are technically still at war because the 1950-53 combat concluded in an armistice rather than a treaty, and the majority of their border is highly fortified.
However, despite the presence of soldiers on both sides, the JSA border is marked solely by a modest concrete partition and is quite easy to pass.
Pyongyang has a long history of holding Americans as bargaining chips in bilateral negotiations.
The new incident occurs at a time when ties between the two Koreas are at an all-time low, with negotiations stalled and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pressing for accelerated military development, including the development of tactical nuclear bombs.
However, the development on Thursday “reads as a sign of the North’s willingness to negotiate,” according to Vladimir Tikhonov, professor of Korean studies at the University of Oslo.
“They essentially want some progress towards normalisation with the United States in order to offset the country’s disproportionately high reliance on the Chinese economy.”
“As a result, a goodwill gesture may occur — though it is far from certain for the time being.”
North Korea’s most important ally and economic benefactor is China.
Washington maintains strict sanctions against North Korea in order to address ongoing worries about their nuclear weapons programme.
Pyongyang staged a stunning military demonstration this week, displaying new attack drones and nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, with visiting Russian and Chinese officials flanking Kim.
Source: AFP