The US Army soldier who entered North Korea in July “admitted to entering it illegally”, North Korean state news agency KCNA said on Wednesday, citing an investigative report. “According to an investigation by a competent organ of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), Travis King admitted to entering the territory of the DPRK illegally,” KCNA reported, using the official name of North Korea.
This is Pyongyang’s first public statement since the start of the King affair. This American soldier was supposed to return to the United States after having had trouble with the South Korean justice, but he actually crossed the border with the North on July 18 while mingling with a group of tourists who visited the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas.
“During the investigation, Travis King said he decided to come to the DPRK because he abhors inhumane treatment and racial discrimination in the US military,” KCNA said.
Travis King “was kept under control by Korean People’s Army soldiers as he deliberately entered” a North Korean area, the agency added, confirming the serviceman’s detention for the first time.
“Disillusioned with the unequal American society”
Mr. King “expressed his willingness to seek refuge in the DPRK or in a third country, saying he was disillusioned with the unequal American society,” KCNA said, adding that an investigation by the regime was still ongoing.
Private Travis King was released from prison in South Korea after a brawl in a bar and an altercation with the police. He had to return to the United States to face disciplinary sanctions.
On Thursday August 3, the American command had indicated that Pyongyang was “responding” to requests concerning the soldier. The head of diplomacy Antony Blinken, who had also confirmed that contact had been established with Pyongyang, had however said that he had no information concerning the whereabouts or the state of health of Travis King.
The two Koreas have technically still been at war since 1953, as it was an armistice and not a peace treaty that ended the armed conflict. Fortifications abound on the border, but only a concrete wall separates them at the level of the common security area (JSA), which remains less difficult to cross despite the presence of soldiers.
Not unreleased
More than a defection for ideological reasons, Travis King could have acted to escape the justice of his country. Assigned to the first American armored division deployed in the South, he was sentenced in February for damaging a police car. He then served two months in prison for assaulting a South Korean at a club near Seoul’s bustling Hongdae district.
Released on July 17, he was to be sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, for further disciplinary action. Escorted to customs control at Incheon airport (west of Seoul), he escaped. The next day, he was on a tour of the JSA. Its presence among visitors may come as a surprise, as access to the JSA is subject to strict controls and requests to participate in visits require several days of processing.
Anyway, he took the opportunity to cross the demarcation line, materialized in the JSA by a simple concrete wall. It was there that Donald Trump became the first American president to enter North Korea, in 2019, during a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Military guides attempted to arrest Travis King, but to no avail. A 2018 inter-Korean agreement establishes that soldiers assigned to the JSA are unarmed. Passed to the North, Mr. King was immediately arrested. He “voluntarily and without permission crossed the demarcation line to enter the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” (official name of the North), then recognized Colonel Isaac Taylor, of the American forces in Korea.
Travis King is the seventh American soldier to move to the North since the Korean War, more to escape his daily life or discipline problems than for ideological reasons. Larry Allen Abshier was the first in May 1962. The best known remains Charles Jenkins. Assigned to the South, he had moved to the North in 1965 to avoid participating in the Vietnam War.
