Almost a month ago, an American soldier who had served in South Korea was crossing the North Korean border during a tourist visit to the South Korean village of Panmunjom, located in the demilitarized zone that separates the two warring territories. Nobody explained the reasons, neither was his family. The opacity of the Kim Jong Un regime made it even more difficult for the US authorities to find answers. Now Pyongyang gives them.
North Korea has finally ruled on the matter. According to their findings, Travis King, a 23-year-old second-class soldier who enlisted in the army in 2021, has sought refuge in the country or elsewhere due to "inhumane mistreatment and racial discrimination" he suffered in the US military, North Korean media reported on Wednesday.
The soldier was last seen running at high speed between the buildings in the joint security area, which is guarded by soldiers from the United Nations Security Command. None of them could reach him and he ended up entering a building on the other side of the border to leave later put in a van by North Korean soldiers. It was July 18 and, since then, nothing more has been known.
Everything indicated that King had crossed the border voluntarily, even his previous movements suggested that he could have planned the escape (visits to the demilitarized zone are reserved in advance). The soldier escaped the day before from the airport, where he was to board a plane bound for the United States. There, disciplinary measures awaited him for having assaulted a man in a pub in Seoul. A week earlier, he was leaving a prison workshop after 48 days of forced labor because he did not pay the fine (of about 3,500 euros) that was imposed on him in February for kicking and damaging a South Korean police car.
North Korean investigators have also concluded that King deliberately and illegally crossed. "During the investigation, Travis King confessed that he had decided to come to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) because he resented the inhumane mistreatment and racial discrimination he suffered within the US Army," KCNA said, referring to the name country official.
"He also expressed his willingness to seek refuge in the DPRK or a third country, arguing that he was disillusioned with the unequal American society," the North Korean agency added. Since his crossing, King has been "under the control of KPA soldiers" and the investigation is still active, according to the same source.
King's uncle, Myron Gates, had already revealed earlier this month on ABC News that his nephew was being targeted for racism during his military deployment in South Korea and that after spending that time in a South Korean jail he didn't sound like himself. . "They are trying to kill me," the soldier told him. Her mother, Claudine Gates, agreed that service in this country had transformed her son.
After King's escape, the White House promised to bring him safely home, but US officials claimed North Korea had provided no substantive responses to requests for information. Once the recent North Korean information was known, the Pentagon stated that it could not verify King's statements, and that he continues to work to achieve a safe return.
King's mother, for her part, expressed concern for her son's safety and called on North Korea to treat him humanely, Jonathan Franks, a spokesman for his family, said in a statement. Likewise, the mother, who has been in contact with the Army all this time, is grateful that the Department of Defense continues her efforts to bring him to the United States.
King's cross raised questions about how he should be classified. Deserter, captive or (now) refugee? For one thing, he's an active duty soldier and the United States and North Korea are technically still at war. But, on the other hand, factors such as King's decision to cross into North Korea of his own free will and in civilian clothes appear to have disqualified him from prisoner-of-war status, US officials have said.
Following King's flight, analysts warned that Pyongyang could use the affair as a form of anti-American propaganda. But the Kim Jong Un regime may not be particularly interested in accepting his asylum application.
Former North Korean diplomat, who is now a South Korean lawmaker, Tae Yong Ho, told Reuters that state media's description of King as an "illegal intruder" instead of calling him a voluntary defector, as well as his mention of a third country, it could suggest that North Korea is not willing to keep him for long. "It raises the possibility that North Korea will send it to a third country, where US officials can pick it up and take it home if they wish," he said in a statement.
