U.S. officials say an American soldier crossed the heavily armed border from South Korea into North Korea becoming the first American detained in the North in nearly five years.
South Korean soldiers stand guard in the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone separating South and North Korea on March 03, 2023 in Panmunjom, South Korea. An American soldier crossed the heavily armed border from South Korea into North Korea "willfully and without authorization," U.S. officials said Tuesday, becoming the first American detained in the North in nearly five years amid heightened tensions over its nuclear program.
Cases of Americans or South Koreans defecting to North Korea are rare, though more than 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea to avoid political oppression and economic difficulties since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. In November 2017, North Korean soldiers fired 40 rounds as one of their colleagues raced toward the South. The soldier was hit five times before he was found beneath a pile of leaves on the southern side of Panmunjom. He survived and is now in South Korea.The most famous incident at Panmunjom happened in August 1976, when two American army officers were killed by ax-wielding North Korean soldiers. The U.S. officers had been sent to trim a 40-foot tree that obstructed the view from a checkpoint.
But in recent years, some American civilians have been arrested in North Korea after allegedly entering the country from China. They were later convicted of espionage, subversion and other anti-state acts, but were often released after the U.S. sent high-profile missions to secure their freedom. Their freedoms were a striking contrast to the fate of Otto Warmbier, an American university student who died in 2017 days after he was released by North Korea in a coma after 17 months in captivity. Warmbier and other previous American detainees in North Korea were imprisoned over a variety of alleged crimes, including subversion, anti-state activities and spying.
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