UN Command hold talks with North Korea regarding detained US soldier

 The United Nations (UN) Command's deputy commander said on Monday that negotiations with North Korea have begun regarding an American soldier who defected to North Korea last week by crossing the fortified border between South Korea and North Korea.

According to AFP, Gen. Andrew Harrison, the Deputy Commander of United Nations Command in South Korea and the Colonel Commandant of the Parachute Regiment, stated that the procedure began using a communications channel, which was established under the armistice agreement that ended the fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.

He stated that Pvt. Travis King's safety is the command's first priority, but he refused to disclose further information, citing the sensitive nature of the negotiations.

North Korea has made no public announcement about any guy known as King, who crossed the border while on his way to Fort Bliss, Texas.

However, the officials in the United States have expressed concern about King’s safety and have previously indicated that North Korea has been unresponsive to their requests for information about him.

Meanwhile, South Korea said that the USS Annapolis, a nuclear-powered United States submarine, arrived at a port on Jeju Island, a province in South Korea, marking the second deployment of a key US naval asset to the Korean Peninsula this month.

Last week, the USS Kentucky became the first nuclear-armed submarine to visit South Korea since the 1980s. North Korea launched ballistic and cruise missile tests in response. North Korea also slammed the United States over deploying a nuclear missile submarine near the Korean peninsula.

In April this year, the US reportedly said that it would send a nuclear ballistic submarine to South Korean ports for the first time in decades.

Yoon Suk Yeol, the President of South Korea, also met Joe Biden, the President of the United States, in Washington.