The US soldier who defected to North Korea in July sought to escape “mistreatment and racial discrimination in the US military”, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA said on Wednesday, the first official confirmation. of Travis King’s detention by Pyongyang.
“According to an investigation by a competent organ of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, editor’s note), Travis King admitted to having entered 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 abhorred the 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 military’s detention for the first time.
Mr. King “expressed his desire to seek refuge in the DPRK or in a third country, saying he was disillusioned with the unequal American society”, further assured KCNA, specifying that an investigation by the regime was still in progress.
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 United Nations Command, which oversees the armistice that ended the Korean War fighting, said last month it had started a conversation with the North about Travis King.
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 location or the state of health of the soldier.
North Korea’s first official comment on Private King is pure propaganda, former CIA analyst Soo Kim, an expert in political practice at LMI Consulting, told AFP.
“King’s stint in North Korea provided the Kim regime with a multi-entry opportunity, the first opening, of course, into possible negotiations with the United States for King’s release,” she said. said, pointing out that the North Koreans were “tough negotiators”.
“It is also an opportunity for the regime’s propaganda to make its honey, to spin the situation in a way that criticizes the United States and expresses Pyongyang’s deep-seated hostility towards Washington,” he said. she adds.
Just before issuing its comments on Travis King, KCNA issued a statement that criticized the discussion at the United Nations on the rights situation in North Korea, and called America “an empire of evil, anti-people, totally depraved by all sorts of social ills”.
“Not content with being complicit in and encouraging racial discrimination, such as the gun crimes, child abuse and forced labor that plague its society, the United States has imposed on other countries unethical human rights standards and fomented internal unrest and confusion,” the statement read.
According to Vladimir Tikhonov, professor of Korean studies at the University of Oslo, since Travis King “is black, I imagine that for North Koreans, he takes on a certain value in terms of propaganda”.
“White racism and the mistreatment of black people is something North Korean propaganda has traditionally emphasized, all the way back to the Korean War, so King can be used to amplify that message,” said the professor at AFP.
16/08/2023 07:29:07 – Seoul (AFP) © 2023 AFP
