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, according to an American official.
(Bloomberg) — 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, according to an American official.
“A service member on an orientation tour willfully and without authorization crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Colonel Isaac Taylor, an Army spokesman, said in a statement Tuesday. “We believe he is currently in DPRK custody.” He said the US military was working with its North Korean counterparts “to resolve this incident.”
The Army identified the solider as Private Second Class Travis King, 23, a cavalry scout in the Army since January 2021 who had received a number of awards. But a US official familiar with the case, who asked not to be identified, said there was more to the story.
King, 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 US military for a foreign conviction, the official said. He was escorted through security and customs at an airport and then was left alone for a flight to Fort Bliss, Texas, to receive the separation notice, according to the official.
Instead, King left the airport and joined a private company’s tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom before bolting across the border, the official said. King’s disciplinary record was reported earlier by the Associated Press.
A person who was on the tour at the border told CBS News that a man in the group gave out a loud laugh and then ran between some buildings.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters Tuesday that he was “closely monitoring” the situation but didn’t elaborate on the incident.
Although South Korean and US soldiers keep a close eye on those who visit, the border between the Koreas in the Joint Security Area in the Panmunjom so-called truce village is marked only a few inches off the ground and easy to cross.
The North Korean military presence has dropped significantly in the JSA since the pandemic started.
–With assistance from Jon Herskovitz, Ryan Teague Beckwith and Roxana Tiron.
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