The Pentagon, concerned by the incident of the American soldier crossing into North Korea

2023-07-19 16:13:01, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Pentagon, concerned by the incident of the American soldier crossing into

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said a US soldier willingly crossed the fortified border between South and North Korea on Tuesday and is being held in custody by authorities in North Korea. The incident comes amid rising tensions between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea's nuclear program.

There was no exchange of gunfire in the border town of Panmunjom, where tensions are high and soldiers from the two Koreas stand guard across from each other.

At the Pentagon, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was asked on Tuesday about the announcements about the passage of US soldiers to North Korea.

"One of our soldiers deployed there intentionally and without authorization crossed the military demarcation line. We believe he has been detained in North Korea. We are investigating and following the situation closely. We are working to notify next of kin of the soldier on our commitment regarding this incident. For me, the main task is the well-being of our troops," he said.

The facts are not yet clear about the case, but there is a history of American soldiers defecting to North Korea, said Jean Lee, who follows developments in North Korea and hosts the online show Lazarus Heist. .

"Four American soldiers defected to North Korea in the late 1960s and early 1970s. For various reasons they were dissatisfied with their service in South Korea and decided it would be better to go to Korea and North rather than returning to their country", she says.

The State Department said Defense Department officials have been in contact with officials from North Korea to resolve the situation.

The incident comes at a time of rising tensions between North Korea, South Korea and the United States, says Eric Gomez of the Cato Institute, a researcher on nuclear arms control issues in East Asia.

"This week before this incident happened, the headline news was the deployment by the United States of a ballistic missile submarine to the port of Busan, South Korea, for the first time since the early 1980s," he says.

The United States sent a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea after North Korea's continued missile tests, including two on Wednesday./ VOA