According to a U.S. official, the American soldier who made headlines around the world when he defected to North Korea this summer has been returned to American custody.
North Korea announced on Wednesday that it was removing Pvt. Travis King, who had sprinted through one of the world’s most strongly armed frontiers into the nation in July, confirming the report.
The official North Korean news agency, Korean Central News Agency, reported that their investigation against King had over. According to the document, King admitted that he had entered the country illegally because he was “against inhumane abuse and racial discrimination within the U.S. military and disillusioned with the unequal American society.”
There was no mention of when or where King will be freed in the article from North Korea’s state media.
The anonymous U.S. official who stated King is in American custody made their statement for security reasons.
Spokesperson Jonathan Franks added that Claudine Gates, King’s mother, is “forever grateful to the United States Army and all its interagency partners for a job well done.”
Ms. Gates does not want to conduct any interviews, and her family has asked for privacy for the time being, according to a statement released by Franks.
While visiting the joint security region that separates the two Koreas, King unexpectedly found himself in the North. The cease-fire line between the two countries that has existed since the end of the Korean War in 1953 splits the Korean Peninsula roughly in half and is one of the most strongly defended frontiers in the world. Back in July, the Pentagon reported that King had entered the North “willfully and without authorization.”
King, now 23 years old, has Wisconsin ties. Racine is the home of his mom.
He was a 1st Armored Division cavalry scout when he crossed into North Korea, and he had recently finished a 47-day prison sentence in South Korea for assault after he was accused of kicking and damaging a police car.At the time he arrived in the North, he was scheduled for return to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he faced the possibility of further military punishment or perhaps dismissal.
Former American detainees in North Korea have not had a good experience thus far.
For instance, in 2017, the North Korean government released college student Otto Warmbier, who had been held captive for 17 months, in a vegetative condition. He passed away shortly afterward. His parents claimed he had brain damage from mistreatment. In 2018, when Donald Trump was president, North Korea released three jailed American citizens.
The North Korean economy and government are among the most closed off in the world. It has threatened the United States with ballistic and cruise missiles of various types that it has tested in recent years. It too has conducted nuclear weapons tests. North Korea has been accusing the United States of routinely violating its airspace during the past few weeks.
Pyongyang’s continued testing of long-range ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons and King Jong Un’s apparent courting of favor with Russian President Vladimir Putin during this month’s visit to Russia have both contributed to heightened tensions between the United States and North Korea. The White House believes a covert arms agreement is nearly finalized between North Korea and Russia to aid Russia in its fight in Ukraine.
