US man arrested in S. Korea
September 17, 2014
South Korean border guards on Tuesday night arrested a man at a river near the Korean Demilitarized Zone, on suspicion that he was planning to swim to the North.
"A male American citizen was arrested last night while attempting to swim across the river to North Korea," a Defense Ministry spokesman told the AFP news agency.
Korean news agency Yonhap reported that the man was in his late 20s or early 30s, saying that he told investigators that he was trying to go to North Korea to meet leader Kim Yong Un. Yonhap's report cited a government official who had requested anonymity as he was not authorized to comment on record.
The US embassy and South Korea's spy agency, the National Intelligence Agency, did not immediately comment on the reports.
Attempted crossings of the heavily guarded North-South Korean border are both rare and dangerous. In September, a man from the South was shot dead by South Korean troops as he tried to swim across the Imjin River section of the border.
Wednesday's reports also harkened back to a US national swimming into the Communist country in 1996. Back then, Evan Hunziker swam across the Yalu River from China to North Korea - purportedly as the result of a drunken dare with a friend. He was arrested in the North on espionage charges and detained for three months before his release could be secured.
Three US citizens are currently being held in North Korean prisons - Kenneth Bae, Matthew Miller and Jeffrey Fowle. Miller was sentenced to six years' hard labor for "hostile" acts against the regime; he is accused of ripping up his tourist visa at immigration. Bae, a Korean-American described by Pyongyang as a militant evangelist, was sentenced to 15 years' hard labor last year. Fowle, who was reportedly arrested for leaving a Bible at a hotel, is expected to be tried soon.
msh/jr (AFP, AP, Reuters)