US national detained crossing into North Korea identified as American soldier
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An American detained crossing the border from South Korea into North Korea has been identified.
According to CBS News, the man has been named as soldier Travis King who, in the moments before he ran across the border, was said to give a loud "ha ha ha".
King is understood to have crossed the heavily fortified border between the North and South, according to the US-led UN Command.
READ MORE: 'I popped round to North Korea's embassy to discuss nukes over tea, the lads are great'
It tweeted that a US citizen had been touring the border village of Panmunjom and then opted to skip over into the isolationist country without permission.
King is said by the US to be at the rank of private second class in the US Army
The UN is understood to have been working with its counterparts in North Korea to resolve the situation, with King, who was at the time unnamed, said to have been detained by authorities.
At the time of writing no information is readily available regarding why Mr King opted to cross the border into the country.
But according to sources he was not in uniform and there's no indication he was trying to defect, with a US defence official confirming that he was on a tour as a civilian.
North Korea has built up a reputation as fiercely unwilling to engage in the international community and has imposed a strict dictatorial rule on its people for decades.
Cases of defection in either direction are hard to come by, although it has happened far more in the direction of the South than it has seen people going North with some 30,000 making it out of the country in a bid to escape its totalitarian regime since the end of the Korean war in 1953.
Panmunjom, which is located inside the DMZ, or demilitarised zone, is overseen by both the UN Command and North Korea and has been the location of both peace talks and bloodshed.
The UN Comand initially said in a Tweet: "A US National on a JSA (Joint Security Area) orientation tour crossed, without authorisation, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
“We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident."
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