UN Command confirms contact with N. Korea over AWOL U.S. soldier
'None of us know where this is going to end' says deputy commander of UN peacekeeping force, while 2nd American nuclear-powered submarine docks in South Korea
The American-led U.N. Command in South Korea said Monday a conversation was started with Pyongyang about a U.S. soldier who ran into North Korea last week across, amidst nuclear-submarine movements in the area.
“None of us know where this is going to end,” a British lieutenant general and deputy commander at U.N. Command, Andrew Harrison, said during a news conference in Seoul. “I am in life an optimist, and I remain optimistic. But again, I will leave it at that.”
Harrison refused to give more details on a timeframe, or whether the conversation was constructive with the North Koreans, citing the sensitivity of the discussions. He also declined to comment on the AWOL Pvt. Travis King’s condition.
The Command, which was created to support Seoul during and after the Korean War, and remained in South Korea to oversee an 1953 armistice that stopped the fighting. The two Koreas are technically still at war, since a peace treaty was never signed.
According to Harrison, the contact was through “mechanisms” set up under the armistice. AP speculated that it could be on what’s called a “pink phone” between the command and the North Korean People’s Army situated at the border truce village of Panmunjom, where King crossed.
Also on Monday, South Korea’s military said a nuclear-powered U.S. submarine arrived at a port on Jeju Island, as a show of force amidst North Korea’s threats.
The arrival of the USS Annapolis adds to last week’s USS Kentucky, which was the first U.S. nuclear-armed submarine to surface in South Korea since the 1980s. North Korea reacted with its own show of force, test-firing ballistic and cruise missiles.
North Korea’s defense minister went a step further, warning the Americans that the Kentucky’s docking in South Korea could be grounds for Pyongyang to use a nuclear weapon. Similar rhetoric has been used before, according to AP, so it mostly underscored the strained relations.