Private 2nd Class Travis King is in American custody, U.S. officials said Wednesday. This news comes after North Korean state-run news agency KCNA reported that the country’s government would “expel” King, 23, the American soldier who crossed over the border between North and South Korea without permission during a tour of the Joint Security Area on July 18.
King, who left an airport where he was meant to board a flight to Fort Bliss, Texas, joined a tour of Panmunjom instead, eventually sprinting across the line of demarcation between the two peninsular states. He had recently been released from a South Korean prison where he had been detained for two months on assault charges.
In February, King was fined for destruction of public goods resulting from an altercation with officers while in police custody following an alleged assault on a fellow nightclub patron. A court later dismissed the charges after the club-goer King allegedly punched in the face decided he did not want the American soldier to be punished. Had King returned to Fort Bliss, he may have faced additional military discipline, as well as a potential dishonorable discharge.
North Korea first confirmed King was in its custody on August 16 with a press release issued through KCNA claiming that, “according to an investigation by a relevant organ of the DPRK, Travis King admitted that he illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK,” and that “during the investigation, Travis King confessed that he had decided to come over to the DPRK as he harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army. He also expressed willingness to seek refuge in the DPRK or a third country, saying that he was disillusioned at the unequal American society.”
While it is likely impossible to confirm whether King actually said those words to North Korean investigators, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said after the statement’s release that it “would not be out of character” for the DPRK to use King as a propaganda tool.