SEOUL (Reuters) -A U.S. national is likely to be in North Korean custody after crossing the inter-Korean border during a tour without approval, the United Nations Command said on Tuesday.
The person was taking part in a tour to the Joint Security Area, the border village in the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas where soldiers from both sides stand guard.
South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo daily, citing South Korea’s army, identified the person as Travis King, a U.S. army soldier in the rank of private second class.
Reuters could not immediately verify the identity of the person mentioned in the report.
“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),” the U.N. Command said on Twitter.
“We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident,” it added, referring to North Korea’s People’s Army.
South Korea’s Defence Ministry said it did not immediately have any information on the incident.
U.S. State Department travel advisory bans U.S. nationals from entering North Korea “due to the continuing serious risk of arrest and long term detention of U.S. nationals.”
The ban was implemented after U.S. college student Otto Warmbier was detained by North Korean authorities while on a tour of the country in 2015. He died in 2017, days after he was released from prison and returned to the United States in a coma.
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Soo-hyang Choi; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Tomasz Janowski)
