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U.S. soldier flees to North Korea at JSA [REWIND 2023]

Published: 24 Dec. 2023, 08:00 Updated: 25 Dec. 2023, 15:22

CHO JUNG-WOO
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A portrait of American soldier Travis King is displayed as his grandfather, Carl Gates, talks about his grandson on July 19 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. [AP]

U.S. Soldier Pvt. 2nd Class Travis King bolted across the inter-Korean border during a group tour of the Joint Security Area (JSA) on July 18. King was returned to U.S. custody at the end of September as Pyongyang decided to “expel" him per North Korean law.

According to the Pentagon, he dashed across the border "willfully and without authorization" at the JSA near the so-called truce village of Panmunjom while on a group tour. A month after, Pyongyang’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency said King told interrogators that he came over to the North because he harbored "ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the [U.S.] Army." This marked Pyongyang’s first public confirmation that the regime had the soldier in custody.

King was accused of committing assault against a Korean national on Sept. 25 and fined 5 million won ($3,940) for repeatedly kicking and damaging the back door of a police patrol vehicle in Seoul on Oct. 8. He was released on July 10 after serving 48 days in a Korean confinement facility instead of paying a fine.

A day before his apparent defection, he was escorted by the U.S. military to Incheon International Airport for a flight to Fort Worth, Texas, to face further military discipline. However, he managed to leave the airport on his own after military escorts released him at a security checkpoint. The next day, he joined a civilian tour group to the JSA.

In October, the U.S. Army charged King with eight crimes, including desertion and possessing child pornography, according to a document cited by multiple U.S. outlets.