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Gi believed held in NoKor for crossing border
By Nidz Godino
"I thought it was bad joke at first but, when he didn't come back, I realized it wasn't joke and then everybody reacted and things got crazy," United States Forces Korea spokesman Colonel Isaac Taylor said US soldier is believed to have been detained by North Korea after crossing heavily fortified border , incident likely to further aggravate Washington's troubled relations with nuclear-armed state.
Hours later, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into sea, according to South Korean military, apparent response to first visit by American nuclear-armed submarine to South Korean port in decades.
Events underscored diplomatic tightrope being walked by Seoul and Washington in face of increasingly assertive Pyongyang.
Soldier identified by US military as Travis King, private second class who has been in army since 2021 crossed the border "willfully and without authorization," Taylor said.
United Nations Command had been on Joint Security Area (JSA) orientation tour, adding that he was believed to be in North Korean custody and that it is working with Pyongyang's military to "resolve this incident".
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin told journalists Washington was "closely monitoring and investigating situation and working to notify soldier's next of kin".
US officials, reported low-ranking soldier was being escorted home to United States for disciplinary reasons, but managed to leave airport and join tour group.
North and South Korea remain technically at war since 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice, rather than peace treaty, with demilitarized Zone running along border.
Soldiers from both sides face off at JSA north of Seoul, which is overseen by United Nations Command.
It is also popular tourist destination and hundreds of visitors tour on South Korean side every day.
Former US president Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Panmunjom Truce Village in 2019 and even stood on North Korean soil by stepping across demarcation line there.
Panmunjom is " only location one could attempt such move out of whole JSA tour," Choi Gi-il, professor of military studies at Sangji University, told media.
Eyewitness on the same tour told media group had visited one of the buildings at site when "this man gives out loud 'ha ha ha' and just runs in between some buildings".
North Korea sealed its borders at start of Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and has yet to reopen them. Its security presence on its side of border at JSA has also been scaled back significantly.
When media toured JSA no North Korean guards were visible in the area. Even so, under armistice protocols, South Korean or US personnel could not run across border to retrieve US national.
Retired US Army lieutenant colonel Steve Tharp, who worked in JSA area, told Seoul-based specialist site media had no idea how North Koreans would react to incident.
"This is the first contact since Covid... we don't know what they're thinking," he told media.
Incident comes as relations between two Koreas are at one of their lowest points, with diplomacy stalled and Kim calling for increased weapons development, including tactical nuclear weapons.
Seoul and Washington have ramped up defense cooperation in response, staging joint military exercises with advanced stealth jets and US strategic assets.
Allies held first Nuclear Consultative Group meeting in Seoul and announced American nuclear submarine was making port visit to Busan for first time since 1981.
Pyongyang, baulks at having US nuclear assets deployed around Korean peninsula, then fired two short-range ballistic missiles into East Sea, also known as Sea of Japan, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff called launches "acts of significant provocation."
JSA in Panmunjom is typically peaceful despite ongoing hostility between two sides.
In 1976, two American soldiers were killed in JSA by North Koreans with axes in dispute over tree.
Last time there was defection at JSA was in 2017, when North Korean soldier drove military jeep and then ran on foot across demarcation line at Panmunjom.
He was shot multiple times by his fellow North Korean soldiers but survived.
Defections between two Koreas are rare but far more common in other direction, when North Koreans seek to escape grinding poverty and repression by fleeing, typically across northern land border into China.
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