Travis King: How the US negotiates with North Korea

BBC News:

A country with closed borders and few diplomatic channels… talking to North Korea is tricky at the best of times. The stakes were even higher when a young American soldier was in their hands. How could the US have gone about his release?

Travis King was released to US custody on Wednesday after being held for more than two months by North Korea.

He crossed illegally into the country on 18 July. Since then, his condition and the details of his confinement in North Korea have been unclear.

The incident posed a key challenge for the US, as it never had an official diplomatic relationship with North Korea.

As a result, the US relies on a network of backchannels to negotiate the return of citizens detained in the country. Sweden was involved with the Private King case, a spokesman for the Swedish embassy in the US has confirmed.

It is believed the 23-year-old soldier was detained and questioned by North Korean authorities.

Private King was last seen running across the demilitarised zone separating North and South Korea. Tensions then escalated in the region, with North Korea firing two ballistic missiles into the sea on 26 July after a US nuclear-powered submarine was stationed in the South.

“All sides are trying to understand what happened and what to do,” said Mickey Bergman, executive director of the Richardson Center for Global Diplomacy.

Mr Bergman, who has spent nearly 20 years negotiating to return US citizens from hostile nations, said the best chance at releasing a prisoner is right after they are detained. This is when they are likely being interrogated by the country’s officials but before they have been charged with a crime, like spying.