North Korea likely to claim US soldier 'defected from imperialist America' in propaganda blitz
An American soldier who crossed the border into North Korea last week is likely to be used as a propaganda tool by Pyongyang, observers have said, as the US-led United Nations Command (UNC) begins attempts to bring him back.
Private Second Class Travis King, 23, is believed to be held by the North after he crossed the military demarcation line "wilfully and without authorisation" during a civilian tour of the neutral Joint Security Area (JSA), US officials said.
British Lieutenant-General Andrew Harrison on Monday said the UNC - which helps maintain the armistice signed at the end of the Korean war - had started contacting North Korea over the extremely sensitive issue.
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"There is someone's welfare at stake and clearly, we're in a very difficult and complex situation, which I don't want to risk by speculation or going into too much detail about communications that have existed," said Harrison, the UNC's deputy commander.
Park Won-gon, a political-science professor at Ewha University, said King would likely serve as a propaganda tool for the poverty-stricken North.
"Its propaganda mills are likely to describe the incident as a defection by a soldier from imperialist America to the workers' paradise," Park told This Week in Asia.
King is likely to face weeks of quarantine in an isolated place before being questioned as the North still maintains strict anti-Covid measures at its borders, letting in very few foreigners, such as high-ranking Chinese diplomats, Park said.
"The North is also likely to call for a high-level envoy to start negotiations for his release" had King not sought asylum there, he said.
Civilian tours to the joint security area at Panmunjom, a point of contact for military and political talks, have been suspended.
North Korea's state media has not mentioned the incident, and its mission to the UN in New York has not responded to requests for comment.
Defence analyst Kim Jong-dae, a former lawmaker of the splinter opposition Justice Party of Korea, said the North's silence so far meant it was taking its time to consider what to do with the unexpected incident.
He noted the event came as the North's leader was seeking to revive negotiations with the United States by reinstating Kim Yong-chol, a top military intelligence official who was in charge of nuclear negotiations with Seoul and Washington.
"King is a precious card for the North that would give it an upper hand" when the US government proposes negotiations with North Korea, Kim Jong-dae said, "allowing it a chance to return to dialogue without losing face".
It is not known what motivated King to cross the border into the North. But while based in South Korea, he had faced accusations of assault and damaging a police car in October. King pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a fine in February, according to a court document obtained by Reuters.
King had finished serving detention in South Korea and was being transported by the US military to the airport to return to his home unit in America, two US officials said.
He had passed alone through security to his gate but then fled. Civilian tours of the DMZ are advertised at the Seoul international airport and King appeared to have decided to join one, an official said.
Of the Americans held in the past by North Korea, most were sentenced to years of hard labour, but freed after high-level diplomacy. Two died soon after their release.
The last American detained by North Korea was Bruce Byron Lowrance, who was caught after entering from China in October 2018. He was deported about a month later after telling his captors, according to North Korean media, that he had been "under the manipulation of the CIA".
The relatively swift resolution followed an unprecedented summit between then-president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Additional reporting by Reuters
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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