An American citizen has been detained in North Korea after crossing over the border into the country without permission during a tour of the Joint Security Area, the United Nations Command said in a statement on Tuesday.
The U.S. citizen was visiting the border village of Panmunjom in the 154-mile-long demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea when the incident occurred. The area, which is overseen by North Korea and the U.N. Command, is a popular tourist destination.
"A US National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)," the American-led UN Command stationed there said.
"We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident," the statement added, referring to North Korea's People's Army.
The incident comes years after Otto Warmbier, then a University of Virginia honors student, was detained after he stole a propaganda banner from a hotel while visiting Pyongyang in January 2016. He was charged with a “hostile act” against North Korea’s government and was convicted less than two months later after a one-hour trial.
He was not returned to the United States until June 2017. He came back in a coma and died shortly after. North Korea claimed Warmbier died of botulism, but he showed no signs of the illness and an MRI showed extensive brain damage and signs that his brain was starved of oxygen at some point.
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Americans seem to have a problem in foreign countries, because some countries actually enforce laws.
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