The United Nations Command and North Korea have begun discussing the case of Travis King, the U.S. soldier who crossed into the North last week, the deputy commander of the U.S.-led command that oversees the Korean War truce said on Monday.
King, a U.S. Army private serving in South Korea, sprinted into North Korea on July 18 while on a tour of the Demilitarized Zone on the inter-Korean border, landing Washington in a fresh diplomatic quandary with the nuclear-armed North.
Conversations between the UNC and North Korea's military were initiated and conducted through a mechanism established under the Korean War armistice, according to Lieutenant General Andrew Harrison, a British Army officer serving as deputy commander of the multinational force.
"The primary concern for us is Private King's welfare," Harrison told a media briefing, declining to go into detail about the contact with the North.
"The conversation has commenced with the KPA through the mechanisms of the Armistice agreement," Harrison said, referring to the North's Korean People's Army.
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