A US soldier who is believed to have crossed into North Korea is not the first American to enter the secretive country. What has become clear over the years is that getting out can be much harder than getting in.

Private Second Class Travis T King was reportedly facing disciplinary action by the US military when he crossed into the secretive country, US officials said.

His mother has spoken of her shock at her son’s actions.

What about other Americans entering North Korea in the last few decades?

Joseph T White

While stationed in South Korea, Joseph T White shot off the lock on a gate leading into the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the Koreas before surrendering to North Korean troops, according to a report.

The North claimed he had defected, though Pyongyang refused a request by the United Nations Command to meet him.

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A US military spokesman later said an investigation indicated that White crossed into North Korea of his own free will.

White is believed to have drowned in a swimming accident in 1985.

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Charles Robert Jenkins

Charles Robert Jenkins walked into North Korea when on patrol on the DMZ in 1965. He later expressed regret for fleeing and explained at his court marital that his motive was to avoid hazardous duty in South Korea and combat in Vietnam. Jenkins said he had drunk 10 beers before the incident.

During his near four decades in the North, he taught English and also portrayed a US spy in a propaganda film.

Jenkins married Hitomi Soga, a Japanese woman abducted by Pyongyang. Soga was allowed to return to Japan in 2002 and Jenkins joined her with their two daughters in 2004. Jenkins died in 2017.

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James Joseph Dresnok

A 21-year-old US Army private stationed in South Korea in 1962, James Joseph Dresnok fled to the North as he faced a court martial for skipping duty.

He described in a film about his life how he ran across the DMZ, through a minefield.

Otto Warmbier

US student Otto Warmbier visited North Korea as part of a guided tour group in 2016.

He was detained as he prepared to leave the country and accused of trying to steal a propaganda sign from the staff-only area of a hotel he was staying in, for which he was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labour.

He died days after being medically evacuated to the US in June 2017. Pyongyang claimed the student fell into a coma after suffering from botulism and hit out at “slanderous talk about cruel treatment and torture”. It denied mistreating the student.

Fred and Cindy Warmbier said when their son returned to the US he had a shaved head, was blind, deaf and “staring blankly into space, jerking violently”, “howling” and making an “involuntary, inhuman sound”.

“Otto was systematically tortured and intentionally injured by Kim Jong Un and his regime. This was no accident,” Mr Warmbier told Fox News.

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