Damionia Lott, U.S. Army Sergeant, Dies Near North Korea Border

A female U.S. soldier who was stationed near the border with North Korea died earlier this month.

Sgt. Damionia Lott died at an off-base hospital in South Korea on September 19, Stars and Stripes reported.

She was a supply sergeant with the 70th Brigade Support Battalion, 210th Field Artillery Brigade at Camp Casey, the command said in a statement on Wednesday.

The command said her death wasn't attributed to a training incident, but declined to provide additional details, according to Stars and Stripes.

The 210th Field Artillery Brigade paid tribute to Lott, who was described as "outstanding" in a post on Facebook on Wednesday.

"Today, the Thunder Family is deeply saddened by the loss of our sister in arms, SGT Damionia Lott," the post said. "She was an outstanding NCO in 70th Brigade Support Battalion and she truly will be missed."

Lott, who was from Louisiana, enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2016, but joined the Army four years later. She arrived at the battalion in South Korea over the summer.

In a statement to Stars and Stripes, her unit said it was "deeply saddened and shocked" by her death.

"Sergeant Lott was an excellent non-commissioned officer who always set the example and made coaching and mentoring others her top priority," said Command Sgt. Maj. Tiffany Montgomery, the support battalion's senior enlisted leader.

Montgomery added: "She was well respected and greatly admired by the entire chain of command."

Lott has been posthumously awarded the Army Commendation Medal.

The U.S. Army has been contacted for additional comment.

About 26,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea as part of a mutual defense pact, according to the latest data from the U.S. Defense Manpower Data Center.

The majority are stationed at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul. Camp Casey is in Dongducheon, about 40 miles north of Seoul and near the Demilitarized Zone.

The DMZ was established to serve as a buffer zone between North and South Korea at the informal end of the Korean War in 1953.

According to the Associated Press, hundreds of thousands of North and South Korean troops are deployed along the DMZ, and the strip of land is littered with an estimated 2 million mines, tank traps, razor wire fences and guard posts.

In 2019, Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to set foot in North Korea when he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the DMZ.