The US and North Korea in talks about the invader - on a 70-year-old line

North Korea

Peter Schwartz  

 

Published 19:08 

Travis King

News  

 

23-year-old soldier Travis King crossed the border into North Korea last week.  

 

Now the countries have started calls on a 70-year-old telephone line.  

 

- King can sit on information that North Korea wants, says Evans Revere, former senior official at the US Foreign Ministry.  

 

At a press conference in Seoul, British Lieutenant General Andrew Harrison said on Monday that talks had begun between the United Nations military group United Nations Command - which is mostly made up of American military - and North Korea through a communication line established during the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953.  

 

- None of us knows where this is going. I'm an optimist myself and I remain optimistic, but I'll leave it at that,” Harrison said.  

 

Andrew Harrison. Photo: Ahn Young-joon / AP  

 

Private Travis King, 23, crossed the border on Tuesday after being in South Korean custody for just over seven weeks, accused of two counts of assault. 

 

King allegedly assaulted a South Korean citizen outside a nightclub in Seoul in September. In October, he allegedly assaulted another person and was fined over SEK 40,000 for damaging a police car.  

 

The day before King crossed the border, he was to be sent to Texas for disciplinary action and possible expulsion from the Army. 

 

- I can't understand that Travis did something like that, King's mother told ABC News after the news that he crossed the border into North Korea. 

 

Might be hard to get him out  

 

American sources and Pyongyang watchers assess that it may be difficult to get King out. Unlike other prisoners in North Korea, he was arrested for entering on his own instead of sneaking in or defaming state propaganda.  

 

According to Evans Revere, a former senior official at the US State Department, King's experience in the military could be of interest to North Korea despite his low rank. Above all, the access to sensitive information, such as details about the military leadership or his unit's priorities. King may also have been briefed on how Seoul and Washington assess Kim Jong Un's military. 

 

- He may have experience that the North Koreans will be eager to learn about, says Revere.  

 

           

            Kim Jong Un. Photo: AP  

 

But, Revere continues, it is unlikely that the information King has is related to war plans. 

 

- Regardless, it's embarrassing, he says. 

 

The clue as to what Pyongyang might do next  

 

How North Korea chooses to communicate the capture of King could provide clues about what Pyongyang intends to do next, according to analyst Rachel Minyoung Lee.  

 

In the past, it has taken anywhere from a day to a month to cite American prisoners. According to Lee, North Korea could probably turn the incident to its advantage by telling its population that the military left the US military for a better life.  

 

Or North Korea could make a point of the illegality of the case and treat him as a criminal.  

 

- Everything depends on whether North Korea sees it as a good propaganda opportunity, says Lee.