In a new crisis for Washington, a soldier from the United States crossed the inter-Korean border and fled into North Korea, on Tuesday, after being released from South Korean prison. He is believed to be in North Korean custody, according to US officials, reported Reuters. The US Army identified the soldier as Private Travis T King, who is in his early 20s and joined the forces in 2021.
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed concern for the soldier and said that King had joined a tour of the Joint Security Area between the two Koreas and "wilfully and without authorization crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)”.
Escape of the soldier
King, 23, spent two months in a South Korean prison over assault charges, and was released on July 10, as per an Associated Press report. He was set to be taken to Fort Bliss in Austin, Texas. According to an official, he had passed through security but for some reason, he decided to bolt. Two US officials said that King was due to face disciplinary action by the US military but wasn’t in custody at the time. At the airport, there were advertisements for civilian tours of the demilitarised zone, which King appeared to have joined.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said US officials at the Pentagon, the State Department and the United Nations were all working to "ascertain more information and resolve this situation." She said that they were in the early stages adding that the primary concern was determining the well-being of the soldier.
Valuable propaganda
While it is unclear how long North Korea will hold the US soldier, Reuters reported that some analysts said this incident could be valuable propaganda for the North. In the past, North has held people for weeks even months, for propaganda purposes, especially if it was a US soldier, before they coerced a confession and an apology, Victor Cha, a former U.S. official and Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies told the news agency.
“It also sometimes requires an American official or ex-official to travel there to obtain the release,” he added. “Having high-level White House officials on the ground in Seoul …. might expedite this, if the North is willing to talk to them.”
Jenny Town, director of 38 North, a Washington-based North Korea monitoring project, said it was important that the soldier seemingly went to North Korea voluntarily.
"This isn't a case of arrest, but whether North Korea will accept him as a defector. The last American who tried to defect to North Korea was denied and returned," Town said referring to Arturo Pierre Martinez, from El Paso, Texas, who entered North Korea in 2014 and gave a news conference there denouncing U.S. policy.