According to the United Nations Command, a US person has probably been apprehended in North Korea after illegally crossing the border between the two Koreas. The individual was touring the Joint Security Area (JSA), a border town in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separating South Korea and North Korea where soldiers from both countries keep watch. “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 UN Command, which has helped oversee the DMZ since an armistice ended fighting in the 1950-1953 Korean War, said on Tuesday.
US citizens are prohibited from traveling to North Korea “due to the continuing serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of U.S. nationals
DPRK is short for North Korea’s official name. “We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and is working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident,” the UN Command added, referring to North Korea’s People’s Army. No other information about the individual or their reasons for crossing the border was provided. The US Department of State and the South Korean Ministry of Defence made no quick comments.
US citizens are prohibited from traveling to North Korea “due to the continuing serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of U.S. nationals,” according to the State Department’s travel alert. Otto Warmbier, a US college student, was imprisoned by North Korean authorities in 2015 while on a tour of the nation; this led to the implementation of the ban. He passed away in 2017 just days after being freed from jail and brought back to the country while still in a coma. Rarely do US citizens or South Koreans desert North Korea, but since the end of the Korean War, more than 30,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea to escape political repression and economic hardship.