![]() President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at which they described vague goals for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and vowed to improve ties. Lowrance’s relatively quick deportation came in the afterglow of a highly orchestrated summit between then-U.S. ![]() In 2018, North Korea freed Bruce Byron Lowrance a month after he entered the country illegally through China. ![]() Park Won Gon, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha University, said the current high tensions between Washington and Pyongyang would complicate diplomatic efforts to bring King home.ĭuring cozier times with the United States, North Korea released U.S. You also need to indoctrinate him into the North Korean system, so you will need to organize a team of specialized teachers and a curriculum,” Thae wrote on Facebook. “A specialized security and surveillance team must be organized (for King), an interpreter must be arranged, a designated vehicle and driver must be provided, and accommodation must be arranged. military intelligence he could provide and the high costs of managing his life. But it's also unclear whether North Korea would want to hold King for long, considering considering his low rank and thus likely low level of U.S. soldier who walked into the country voluntarily. Thae Yong Ho, a former diplomat at the North Korean Embassy in London who defected to South Korea in 2016 and is now a lawmaker, said the North has never released any U.S. “That would create challenges for South Korea, which has been focusing on strengthening nuclear deterrence strategies with the United States.” North Korea’s goal would be to create a dilemma for Washington in “choosing between (strengthening) U.S.-South Korean nuclear deterrence strategies and protecting its own citizen,” Yang said. has increased its deployment of strategic assets like bombers and nuclear-capable submarines since 2022 in a show of force against North Korea's nuclear threat. It’s possible North Korea may demand the United States scale back its military activities with South Korea in exchange for King’s release. While King’s immediate value would be propaganda, Pyongyang could also seek opportunities to use him as a bargaining chip to wrest concessions from Washington, he said. soldier who voluntarily entered the country. “This is largely a wait-and-see as there’s just so little precedent for it."īut Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in South Korea, says it's highly unlikely North Korea would pass up the propaganda value of a U.S. “If they decide that he’s not a good story, they may just return him so that this doesn’t exacerbate already fragile relations (with the United States)," Town said. solider who escaped evil imperialists and chose to live in North Korea's “socialist paradise.” There's a big difference with King, who had legal problems and faced disciplinary action and a possible discharge before he bolted into North Korea. Jenkins walked into North Korea in 1965 to avoid combat duty in Vietnam, making it easier for Pyongyang to paint him as a disillusioned U.S. And King might be less ideal as propaganda material. It's unclear whether the North Korea of today would treat King similarly to how it did Jenkins and Dresnok, whose crossings were six decades ago. The length of his stay will likely depend on whether North Koreans find a way to spin his story for their own propaganda, said Jenny Town, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and director of the North Korea-focused 38 North website. None of the previous cases, however, seems relevant as a forecast for King.
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