SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A pink phone. A New York mission. Swedish diplomats. A North-South Korean hotline. The United States and reclusive North Korea have no…
A pink phone. A New York mission. Swedish diplomats. A North-South Korean hotline.
The United States and reclusive North Korea have no diplomatic ties — but they still have ways to contact each other. An American official said Wednesday that the U.S. government had reached out to the North as it tries to discuss a U.S. soldier who dashed into North Korea during a tour of a border area this week. The North has not yet responded, according to the U.S.
Here’s a look at possible channels the rivals could use to discuss Pvt. Travis King, the first American held in North Korea in nearly five years.
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One of the most reliable ways for the U.S. to reach North Korea is via a light pink-colored, touch-tone phone at the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the Korean border village of Panmunjom, the place where King bolted into the North on Tuesday. The telephone line connects the liaison officers from each side — whose offices are reportedly only 40 meters (130 feet) apart.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Wednesday that the Pentagon reached out to its counterparts in the North’s Korean People’s Army but “those communications have not yet been answered.”
Miller didn’t elaborate. But observers say the U.S. likely used the “pink phone.”
In January, the U.N. Command tweeted that it had maintained “24/7/365” contact with the North’s army throughout 2022.
“Talking via the ‘pink phone,’ we passed 98 messages & held twice-daily line checks for timely & meaningful information exchange,” it said.
Moon Seong Mook, a retired South Korean brigadier general, said North Korean liaison officers appear to not be answering the calls made by the U.N. Command at the order of their higher-ups.
When North Korea previously suspended that telephone line, U.N. officers used a megaphone, Moon said.
The exact motive for King’s border crossing is unclear.
