The United Nations and North Korea have entered discussions over the welfare of an American soldier who fled to the country.
Private Second Class Travis King, 23, the first American to be held in the hermit state for five years, was on a civilian tour of the demilitarised zone, near the border crossing of Panmunjom, before he entered the North “wilfully and without authorisation”, according to US officials.
General Andrew Harrison, a British Army officer serving as deputy commander of an overseas force, confirmed that conversations between the United Nations Command and North Korea’s military are ongoing.
“The primary concern for us is Private King’s welfare,” Harrison told a media briefing, declining to go into detail.
“The conversation has commenced with the KPA through the mechanisms of the Armistice agreement,” Harrison said, referring to the North’s Korean People’s Army.
“I can’t say anything that could prejudice that process.”
The North Korean state media has remained silent about Mr King.
The incident has coincided with heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula. Last week a US nuclear-armed submarine docked in South Korea for the first time in decades.
The North has recently increased its testing of missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, including a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile launched earlier this month.
Days before Mr King fled he had been released from a prison in South Korea, where he had been held on assault charges, and faced further disciplinary action on his arrival at Fort Bliss, Texas.
Mr King had previously pleaded guilty to assault and destruction of public property. Last September he punched a man in the face at a nightclub and in October he damaged a police car in which he was being held, court documents showed.
In February he was fined 5 million won (£3,000) by a court in Seoul. He was released on Monday after spending 50 days in custody, although the authorities have not confirmed whether he was in US military or South Korean custody.
