New details in the case of the US soldier who disappeared to North Korea after riots in France: police officers in custody

Already imprisoned in South Korea

The US Department of Defense has released new details about the mysterious case of a US soldier who illegally crossed the inner Korean border into North Korea a few days ago. The young man was escorted to the airport and was scheduled to fly back to the United States, but left the airport at the last minute before boarding the plane, the Pentagon spokeswoman said in Washington on Thursday.

The soldier has completed his deployment and should have returned home after serving time in a detention center in South Korea for a crime, Singh said. In the United States, he was threatened with “additional administrative action”. She wasn’t more specific.

Soldier had bullied in South Korea

She also gave no details about the background of his detention. The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Wednesday, based on judicial authorities, that the man with footsteps in a row against Koreans and their soldiers damaged a police patrol car and was prosecuted.

The Pentagon spokeswoman said the US soldier was not in custody on the way to the airport. But he had companions who would have guided him through the security check. “I don’t think anyone expected them to leave the airport,” she said. The young man later joined a border commercial tour, where he eventually broke away from the group and crossed the border into North Korea. “We don’t know what he did in the hours between leaving the airport and crossing over to North Korea,” Singh said. “We don’t know his reasons for not boarding.” All of this is currently being investigated.

whereabouts unknown

“We don’t know how he is,” the Pentagon spokeswoman continued.

All that is known is that he is in the custody of the North Koreans.

The US government is trying to contact North Korea in various ways, Singh said. However, so far the North Korean side has not responded to any of these attempts. The goal is to bring the American soldiers home. When asked by reporters if the young man might not want to return, Singh referred to the ongoing investigation and said his current duty status was “unauthorized absence from the police force”.

Guided tour possible at the border

However, a direct crossing of the inner Korean border is extremely rare. The two states are separated by a heavily mined border that is guarded by the military. From the South Korean side, however, it is possible to participate in tourist tours through the so-called demilitarized zone.

These include the settlement of Panmunjeom, in whose military barracks with the iconic blue roofs the armistice negotiated in 1953 during the Korean War was negotiated. The participants of the tours are led there to within a few meters of the border with North Korea.

The case brings back bad memories

The so-called Demilitarized Zone separates the two Korean states. Americans have illegally entered North Korea several times in recent years. There they were usually sentenced to several years in prison and only released after lengthy negotiations.

The case of the American student Otto Warmbier caused a sensation. He was arrested in 2016 after a group tour to North Korea and sentenced to 15 years in a labor camp for “hostile acts against the state”. He died just days after returning to the United States in June 2017, after being in a coma for 15 months. (saw/sda/dpa)