A US soldier facing disciplinary action has crossed the inter-Korean border into North Korea and is believed to be in North Korean custody, US officials said, creating a fresh crisis for Washington in its dealings with the nuclear-armed state.
North Korea has fired a ballistic missile into the sea near Japan, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing South Korea's military.
The United Nations Command that oversees the demilitarised zone area at the border earlier today identified the individual as a US national who had crossed into North Korea without authorisation while on a tour.
It said the person was likely in custody but offered no other details.
South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo daily, citing South Korea's army, identified the person as Travis King, a US army soldier with the rank of private second class.
The newspaper later deleted the name.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the identity of the person, but two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the soldier had been due to face disciplinary action by the US military.
A third US official said the soldier had crossed into North Korea "wilfully and without authorisation."
CBS News said that before the incident the soldier was being escorted back to the United States for disciplinary reasons, but after going through airport security somehow returned and managed to join the border tour.
It said a person who said they witnessed the event and was part of the same tour group told CBS News they had just visited one of the buildings at the site when "this man gives out a loud 'ha ha ha,' and just runs in between some buildings."
CBS cited the witness as saying that military personnel reacted within seconds to the man's actions, but initially, there was confusion.
"I thought it was a bad joke at first, but when he didn't come back, I realised it wasn't a joke, and then everybody reacted and things got crazy," it quoted the witness as saying.
According to CBS, the witness said there were no North Korean soldiers visible where the man ran, and that the group has been told there had not been since the coronavirus pandemic, when North Korea sought to seal its borders.
The crossing comes at a sensitive time amid high tensions on the Korean peninsula, with the arrival of a US nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine in South Korea for a rare visit in a warning to North Korea over its own military activities.
North Korea has been testing increasingly powerful missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, including a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile launched last week.
The US State Department understands that the Pentagon has reached out to counterparts in North Korea, department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.
Washington has "regular, ongoing contacts" with the government in South Korea, Mr Miller added.
"A US National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorisation, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)," the UN Command said on Twitter.
"We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident," it added, referring to North Korea's People's Army.
The US State Department tells US nationals not to enter North Korea "due to the continuing serious risk of arrest and long term detention of US nationals."
The ban was implemented after US college student Otto Warmbier was detained by North Korean authorities while on a tour of the country in 2015.
He died in 2017, days after he was released from North Korea and returned to the United States in a coma.
