While a conversation has commenced, there has been no substantive communication between the United States and North Korea on the issue of the 23-year-old U.S. Army Private Travis King, detained in North Korea after crossing the military demarcation line on July 18. How to respond to the North's escalating military provocations, from the U.S. and its allies' standpoint, isn't the prime issue here ― rather, it is about how to secure King's return to the U.S.