UN Starts ‘Conversation’ on US Soldier Who Fled to North Korea

The American-led U.N. Command said Monday it has started “a conversation” with North Korea about a U.S. soldier who ran into the North last week across one of the world’s most heavily fortified borders.

Andrew Harrison, a British lieutenant general who is deputy commander at the U.N. Command, which oversees implementation of the 1953 armistice that ended fighting in the Korean War, declined to comment about the state of the inquiry to North Korea or say what the command knows about Pvt. Travis King’s condition.

“I am in life an optimist, and I remain optimistic,” Harrison said during a news conference in Seoul.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said North Korea had only “acknowledged” receiving the U.N. message last week and had not provided any information or commented further since then.

“There have been no new contacts since last week,” Miller said, adding North Korea also had not responded to messages sent by U.S. civilian or military officials.

North Korea has remained publicly silent about King, who crossed the border during a tour of Panmunjom while he was supposed to be heading to Fort Bliss, Texas, following his release from prison in South Korea on an assault conviction.

The U.S. still has not been able to ascertain King’s condition, a senior administration official said Monday in Washington. Asked if U.S. officials had a better understanding of whether King intended to defect, the official said they still had “no indication about what was going on in his mind that day.”

The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Analysts say North Korea might wait weeks or even months to provide meaningful information about King to maximize leverage and add urgency to U.S. efforts to secure his release. Some say North Korea may try to wrest concessions from Washington, such as tying his release to the United States cutting back its military activities with South Korea.

King’s crossing came at a time of high tensions in the Korean Peninsula, where the pace of both North Korea’s weapons demonstrations and the United States’ combined military exercises have intensified in a tit-for-tat cycle.