The command of United Nations said Tuesday that a US citizen crossed the border from South Korea towards the neighbor North Korea.
The agency, which oversees safety in the korean peninsulatweeted that the citizen was participating in a visit to a Korean border village and crossed north without authorization.
The US citizen who crossed the border into North Korea is a soldier, reports The Dong-a Ilbo newspaper, citing the army of South Korea. This in North Korean custodyadded the UNnoting that the command is working with local authorities to resolve the incident.
US man arrested for entering North Korea
“A United States citizen crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (official name of North Korea) during an orientation tour”, said the Command of the UN in a brief statement on Twitter.
“We believe that he is currently in the custody of the DPRK and we are working with our counterparts in the Korean People’s Army (KPA) to resolve this incident,” the text adds.
He UN command is in charge of the southern fringe of the Joint Security Zone (JSA) the only point in the heart of the border where you can see the expensive troops of the two Koreas, who are technically still at war.
The statement does not clarify whether the US citizen was a tourist (the JSA can be visited this way or a military).
The JSA has been the scene of defections in the past, although it has almost always been people trying to cross into South Korea. In 2017, a North Korean soldier carried out a spectacular escape in which his companions hit him with several shots, although he survived.
In 1984 a student of the no longer existent Soviet Union crossed south during a tourist visit, which led to a tragic exchange of fire between troops that resulted in the deaths of three North Korean soldiers, one South Korean and one from the UN command.
Source: Ambito
