UN Command claims to be in talks with North Korea over a US soldier

According to the UN Command’s deputy commander, Pyongyang and Washington have begun talking about American soldier Travis King, who crossed the border into North Korea last week.

At a news conference, Lieutenant General Andrew Harrison mentioned the 1953 armistice agreement that put a stop to hostilities in the Korean War and said, “A conversation has started with the Korean People’s Army through the mechanism of the armistice agreement.

A multinational army under US command supervises the Korean War Armistice under the name UN Command.

The 1950–1953 War between the two Koreas concluded in an armistice rather than a peace treaty; hence, the two Koreas are still formally at war.
Harrison stated that Private King’s welfare was their top priority and that the incident was “still under investigation.

Harrison acknowledged that the armistice deal included a method for the UN Command to connect with the military of the North but refused to provide more information due to the “very delicate nature of these negotiations.”

His statement that “someone’s welfare is at stake” and that it was a “difficult and complex situation” was made. Since North Korea shut its borders at the start of the epidemic, the United States has no official diplomatic relations with the North, and the majority of foreign embassies with a presence in Pyongyang have evacuated their diplomats.

After getting into a bar brawl while intoxicated, fighting with the police, and spending some time in jail in South Korea, Private Second Class King was being led to the airport in Seoul last week in preparation for his flight to Texas.

King snuck out, joined a tour of the Demilitarized Zone, and crossed the border instead of boarding the plane to attend disciplinary hearings at Fort Bliss. Currently, it is thought that North Korea is holding him. King has not received any public remarks from North Korea.

The majority of the border separating the two Koreas is militarized. However, the border at Panmunjom, also known as the Joint Security Area, is merely delineated by a short concrete wall and is quite simple to pass despite the presence of soldiers on both sides.