The whereabouts of an American soldier who was said to have entered North Korea on Tuesday have not been revealed, despite the fact that new information has surfaced concerning the incident. North Korea has not commented on the matter in any way.
Despite being the first American soldier to enter North Korea while 1982, Private Travis King had a history of violence, was subject to disciplinary proceedings for his actions, and was scheduled to return to the United States the day following the incident, according to court filings. An army official confirmed to CNN that the soldier would be administratively discharged from the US military.
It is not known how exactly King came to be on the North Korean part of the border; details regarding this matter remain unknown.
When King crossed the line dividing the two countries, he had been touring the border region in his capacity as a civilian.
In addition, his motivation is a conundrum. Claudine Gates, the mother of Martin Luther King Jr., told ABC that she got “shocked” when the United States Army informed her that her son had traveled to North Korea.
In an interview with ABC, Gates stated, “I can’t see Travis committing anything like that.” She went on to say that she had spoken to her son a few days before, and he had informed her that he would be heading to his base at Fort Bliss.
A defense official stated on Wednesday that the United States has been aggressively reaching into North Korea in an effort to address the issue, but that it has not yet received a response. According to the defense official, it is usual for North Korea to not answer when the United States reaches out to them.
The head of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. John Aquilino, stated on Tuesday that the United States has “no communication at this point” with North Korea regarding King. Aquilino stated this information on Tuesday while speaking at the Aspen Security Forum. He stated that King “made a break for it across the DMZ in the JSA, and was taken up by the North Koreans, but we haven’t heard from them since.”
Aquilino also stated that he has “not gotten any reports” suggesting that King is a supporter of North Korea.
King is known to have joined the United States Army as a cavalry patrol in January of 2021, according to the US Army. Officials from the United States of America did not disclose the duration that King had been stationed in South Korea; nevertheless, at some point during his stay there, he was disciplined for assault along with spending around 50 days inside a detention center.
According to the officials, King was detained in a designated prison in accordance with the current state of Forces Agreement between the United States and South Korea. This agreement specifies the legal status of US military members, their families, and other Department of Defense personnel stationed abroad.
According to CNN, an American official confirmed that King had been freed from jail on the tenth of July and would be returning to the United States on July 14.
According to another official’s statement on CNN, Military officers escorted King to the airport, but they were unable to go with him to the gate, so King missed his flight.
Assaults in the Past
It would indicate that King has a history of engaging in aggressive behavior. According to the evidence shown in court documents from South Korea, he has been accused of assaulting two different people in 2017 and was given a monetary penalty for one of the episodes.
According to the documents from the Seoul Western District Court, in October of last year, he was charged with pushing along with repeatedly striking a victim in the face in a bar located in the Mapo-gu neighborhood of Seoul. The incident allegedly occurred when he was denied a drink that he requested.
According to the court document, after the claimed assault, King had been taken into custody by the police and put in the back window of a patrol car. While he was angry, he allegedly used insulting language about Korea, the Korean army, and the Korean police.
Following this, he is said to have kicked the front door of the police vehicle multiple times, resulting in 583,959 Korean won (about $461) in damages, as stated in the court document. According to the document, King was given a fine of 5 million Korean won, which is roughly equivalent to $4,000.
The paper said that the defendant will be held in a labor institution for an amount of time equivalent to 100,000 Korean earned each day if the fine was not paid by the defendant. At this point, it is unknown whether King paid the fee or was sentenced to time in a correctional facility.
The court statement also made reference to a previous assault complaint that had been filed against King in September 2022. However, the case against King was dismissed after the claimed victim stated that he did not want to press proceedings against King.
CNN was informed by South Korean authorities that King had been handed over to the US military police following an inquiry into an attack that took place in September of last year. It is not clear whether the event that they were alluding to was a comparable case that the court ruled to be irrelevant and dismissed.
It is not apparent whether the incidents that led to his detention during the period that he remained in detention were related to these episodes.
