THE United States military was scrambling today to determine the fate of one of its soldiers who crossed into North Korea this week as the rival state remained silent on his detention.

Travis King joined the US army in 2021 and was facing disciplinary action, but his motive for “wilfully and without authorisation” bolting across the inter-Korean border was not officially known.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said: “We believe that he is in [North Korean] custody and so we’re closely monitoring and investigating the situation and working to notify the soldier’s next of kin.”

North Korea’s state media had not made any mention of the incident at the time the Morning Star went to print.

Mr King was released from a South Korean prison earlier this month, not the first time he had run into legal trouble in the country.

In February, a court fined him 5 million won (£3,059) after being convicted of assaulting an unidentified person and damaging a police vehicle in Seoul last October.

He was expected to leave for the US on Tuesday where he could have faced more punishment after being escorted to customs.

The soldier is the first known US citizen held in North Korea in nearly five years.

Each detention has set off diplomatic wrangling and this one comes amid tensions between the two states over the US’s heightened military alliance with South Korea.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the US government was working with its North Korean counterparts to “resolve this incident.”

Tae Yongho, a former minister at the North Korean embassy in London, said North Korea is likely pleased to have “an opportunity to get the US to lose its face” because Mr King’s crossing happened on the same day a US nuclear-armed ballistic missiles submarine arrived in South Korea.

Mr Yongho, now a South Korean lawmaker, said North Korea was unlikely to return Mr King easily because he is a soldier from a nation technically at war with North Korea and he voluntarily went to the North.

The border incident took place a day after the US and South Korean officials held their first round of talks on upgrading already high military co-ordination.

The US has pledged to deploy more aircraft carriers, submarines and long-range bombers to South Korea, drawing anger from Pyongyang which has in response vowed to escalate its own actions.