Visitors use binoculars to look at a view of the North Korean side of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), from the Odusan Unification Observatory in Paju on July 19, 2023.Photo:AFP

Just as tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen due to US deployment of a nuclear submarine to South Korea and the launches of two missiles by North Korea following US provocations, US Forces Korea confirmed that a US soldier "willfully" trespassed into North Korea on Tuesday. 

Chinese analysts said on Wednesday that the incident, which they believe could be a defection, might force Washington to engage with Pyongyang. 

Since US President Joe Biden took office, engagement between the US and North Korea has remained in deadlock, and due to the confrontational attitude showed by the US and South Korea after President Yoon Suk-yeol took office, the Korean Peninsula situation is getting more and more dangerous. The latest incident could be a chance for the parties involved to try to ease tensions by resuming communication. However, if the US fails to handle it properly, it could also worsen the tension, experts warned. 

The US Army identified a soldier who crossed the demarcation line into North Korea as Private Travis King, a cavalry scout who joined the military in January 2021, CNN reported on Wednesday. King had been on a tour of the Panmunjom border area as a civilian when he crossed into North Korea on Tuesday, following a yet unclear sequence of events that come at a time of fraught diplomacy and rising military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

US Forces Korea spokesperson Isaac Taylor said Tuesday that a US soldier "willfully and without authorization" crossed the line during a regular tour of a section of the buffer zone between North and South Korea known as the Joint Security Area (JSA).

"We believe he is currently in [North Korean] custody and we are working with our [Korean People's Army] counterparts to resolve this incident," Taylor said in a statement.

US officials told CBS News that King was escorted to the airport in Incheon, near Seoul, for a flight back to the US to be separated from the Army, US officials said. But he parted ways with his escort at customs and did not board the plane.

According to ABC News, after going through airport security on Monday, he somehow returned and managed to join a border tour group before crossing into North Korea, US officials said.

Han Xiandong, an expert on Korean Peninsula issues with China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the incident is strange. "If there was no deliberate plan, it would be extremely difficult for a passenger like King to leave the airport after passing the security checkpoint on Monday and arrive at Panmunjom on Tuesday, and joining a tour of the border area needs to be reserved ahead of time."

Lü Chao, an expert on the Korean Peninsula at Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the incident means North Korea holds more leverage against the US in future negotiations. 

"The Biden administration has ignored the Korean Peninsula issue for a very long time even though tension is ratcheting up. This time Washington might be forced to pay attention to and get in touch with Pyongyang amid the rising tension."

North Korea fired two ballistic missiles eastward early on Wednesday, the Japanese and South Korean militaries said, just hours after a US ballistic missile submarine arrived in a South Korean port for the first time in four decades, Reuters reported.

Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a routine press conference on Wednesday that the crux for the resurgence of tensions on the Korean Peninsula is clear. Relevant party uses the Peninsula issues to seek selfish geopolitical interests, which has escalated tensions in the region and harmed the de-nuclearization process on the Peninsula. Relevant moves have raised concern.

"We hope relevant parties will keep to the direction of political settlement and address each other's legitimate concerns in a balanced way through meaningful dialogue and uphold peace and stability on the Peninsula," Mao said.

Han said that in the past, in order to solve cases of US personnel who are detained by North Korea, some US senior officials and even former US presidents had visited Pyongyang, but these visits were unable to bring significant changes to US-North Korea relations, and only bring some short-term positive changes as the two sides at least have reasons to engage with each other.

Lü said the incident of US soldier trespassing into North Korea could be a chance for engagement, but if the US remains tough and fails to use it as a chance to ease tension, the recent tension could worsen.