North Korea detained a US soldier who intentionally crossed the border from South Korea in an apparent effort to escape being sent home after being charged with assault, a US official said on Tuesday.
The US Army identified the soldier as Private Second Class Travis King, 23, a cavalry scout in the army since January 2021 who had received a number of awards.
However, a US official familiar with the case, who asked not to be identified, said there was more to the story.
Photo: Sarah Leslie/Handout via Reuters
King, who is from Wisconsin, had been released from South Korean detention where he had been held on charges of assaulting two Koreans and was facing formal separation from the military for a foreign conviction, the official said.
He was escorted through security and customs at an airport and was then left alone for a flight to Fort Bliss, Texas, to receive the separation notice, the official said.
Instead, King left the airport and joined a private company’s tour of the border village of Panmunjom before bolting across to North Korea, the official said.
King’s disciplinary record was reported earlier by The Associated Press.
“A service member on an orientation tour willfully and without authorization crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” US Army spokesman Colonel Isaac Taylor said in a statement, using the official name for North Korea.
“We believe he is currently in DPRK custody,” Taylor added.
He said that the US military was working with its North Korean counterparts “to resolve this incident.”
It was unclear how King made his way from the airport to the tour, which usually requires reservations made in advance.
A person who was on the Panmunjom tour told CBS News that a man in the group gave out a loud laugh and then ran between some buildings that straddle the border.
Apart from the assault, King kicked and broke the door of a police car in Seoul in October last year and was fined 5 million won (US$3,952) by a district court in the city over the incident, Yonhap News Agency reported.
At the same time, he was awarded the Korean Defense Service Medal, which is given as recognition for military service in South Korea, it said.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters on Tuesday that he was “closely monitoring” the situation, but did not elaborate.
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