Barricades are positioned close to the Unification Bridge, which results in the Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, July 19, 2023. An American soldier who had served almost two months in a South Korean jail, fled throughout the closely armed border into North Korea, U.S. officers stated Tuesday, changing into the first American detained in the North in almost 5 years.
Ahn Young-joon/AP
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Ahn Young-joon/AP
Barricades are positioned close to the Unification Bridge, which results in the Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, July 19, 2023. An American soldier who had served almost two months in a South Korean jail, fled throughout the closely armed border into North Korea, U.S. officers stated Tuesday, changing into the first American detained in the North in almost 5 years.
Ahn Young-joon/AP
Officials say Pvt. 2nd Class Travis King has been a calvary scout with the U.S. Army since January 2021.
The 23-year-old had been stationed in South Korea, however had not too long ago been held in a jail there on prices of assault, the AP reported. While it’s unclear how lengthy he’d been incarcerated, in response to CBS News, King was launched to U.S. officers at the army hub in the nation about every week in the past.
Before bolting into North Korea, King was being escorted to an airport outdoors of Seoul the place he was anticipated to board a aircraft certain for Fort Bliss, Texas, to face army disciplinary motion.
Officials obtained him by airport safety, however one way or the other King managed to ditch the escort and make his manner out of the terminal and again to the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. That is the place officers stated King, who was wearing civilian garments, joined a tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom.
One member of the tour group described the incident on a now-deleted Facebook put up, saying the King cried out, then ran between two buildings and ultimately into North Korea. It is unclear if he deliberate to defect.
Where is Travis King now?
During a Tuesday press convention, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated officers consider King is in the custody of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“I’m absolutely foremost concerned about the welfare of our troop,” Austin stated.
So far, there was no official phrase from North Korea.
King’s mom, Claudine Gates who lives in Racine, Wis., informed ABC News that she was shocked when Army officers informed her on Tuesday that her son had fled.
“I can’t see Travis doing anything like that,” Gates said.
She added that the final time she heard from her son was just a few days in the past when he known as to inform her he was headed again to his base in Fort Bliss, in response to the outlet.
“I’m so proud of him. I just want him to come home, come back to America,” Gates stated.
Meanwhile, it’s nonetheless unclear whether or not King deliberate his escape into North Korea or whether or not it was one thing he did on a whim. Some consultants say that the journey simply to the Demilitarized Zone takes days of planning.
Jacco Zwetsloot, the host of the North Korea News podcast and a former worker of a tour firm that took U.S. troopers to the border, told the BBC that there was “no way this person could escape from the airport one day and book on to one of these tours the next.”
He informed the outlet that these journeys normally take three days to plan and tour-goers should submit their passports and different credentials to authorities.
Can U.S. officers convey King residence?
The soldier’s detention poses a contemporary diplomatic problem for Washington’s cautious relationship with North Korea; the U.S. doesn’t have formal diplomatic relations with Pyongyang.
NPR’s Greg Myre stated North Korean chief Kim Jong Un might endeavor to leverage the incident for political acquire.
“It certainly wouldn’t be surprising if North Korea tries to score some propaganda points or makes demands in exchange for handing over the soldier,” Myre told All Things Considered.
Many U.S. residents have been detained by North Korea over the years.
The final time was in 2018 when Bruce Byron Lowrance​ illegally entered the nation from China. Lowrance was held in custody for a month before his release.
Before that, Tony Kim, a Korean-American professor, and Kim Hack Song, a former South Korean politician who additionally held U.S. citizenship, had been each detained in 2017 after which launched over a yr later. Their launch got here on the identical day as one other American Kim Dong Chul, who had been held since 2015. The three were set free throughout a go to North Korea by then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and forward of the a lot anticipated summit between then-President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un in Singapore later that yr.
One of the extra high-profile detainments was that of Otto Warmbier in 2016, a U.S. faculty pupil who was on a tour of the nation earlier than he was detained. Warmbier was accused of taking a poster from his lodge and held for greater than a yr. He was eventually released to U.S. officers whereas he was in a coma after which died simply days after returning to the U.S.
NPR’s Emily Olson contributed to this story.