On Tuesday, US soldier Travis King ran across the border between North and South Korea. This has raised concern from US authorities as they have no communication with that country.

King, 23, entered North Korea after the Pentagon ordered him to return to the United States after serving 48 days in a South Korean prison for kicking a police car.

Who is Private Travis King, who disappeared on the border between the two Koreas?

The soldier, accompanied by American personnel, went to the security check at Seoul airport, where he was supposed to take a flight to the United States, but then lost track.

Until this Friday, it was not yet possible to get a response from North Korea about the military’s situation. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has revealed that he has asked China to use its influence over North Korea to get Kim Jong-un’s regime to sit down to negotiate its nuclear program.

“We have made it clear that we are willing to negotiate with North Korea about its nuclear program without preconditions, but their response has been one missile after another,” Blinken said at a forum in Colorado.

Blinken added on the forum that he has no new information about the American soldier.

“We are of course very concerned for his well-being. We would like to know where you are. We have communicated with North Korea, but I have nothing else at the moment,” said the state secretary.

There are several mechanisms for establishing communications between the United States and North Korea. One of these is known as the Pink Telephone installed in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a direct telephone line connecting the cabin of the UN Command, led by US soldiers, to the North Korean military on the other side, just 40 meters away.

For five years, its use was cut off by the North Korean side, but it was reinstated in 2018.

“When you get there, you realize that it’s only a few centimeters and you can easily pass through”: what it’s like to visit the demilitarized zone between the Koreas on a tourist tour

According to the UN command, the line has remained active and no fewer than 98 messages will have been exchanged via the pink telephone in 2022.

“Communication is complicated. There are no diplomatic relations between the two countries, but it’s not as big of an obstacle as it might seem. If North Korea wants to talk, they can,” he said Friday. EFE Mitchell Lerner, director of East Asian Studies at Ohio University.

Another option that is counted is the mediation of Sweden, a country that has an embassy in North Korea. The Swedish diplomatic mission in the North Korean capital often represents the consular interests of other countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia or the Scandinavian countries.

The United States also has the ability to communicate with Pyongyang through the UN in New York.

Be that as it may, the communication efforts have not yet been successful, at least officially. “All we can do is keep sending messages. Both publicly and through private channels,” said deputy Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.