A US soldier who was just released from a South Korean jail and was facing additional military discipline and discharge from the service fled across the South Korean border into North Korea on Tuesday afternoon local time.
Private 2nd Class Travis King, 23, was released from South Korean jail on July 10 after serving nearly two months for an assault charge. He was being sent back to Fort Bliss, Texas, and military personnel escorted him as far as customs; however, before boarding the plane he left the airport and traveled to Panmunjom, a Korean border city located within the 150-mile Joint Security Area, where forces from both sides face each other in relative proximity.
King reportedly joined a tour group and then sprinted across the border before being apprehended by North Korean authorities. He is the first American to be detained by North Korea in nearly five years.
It is not known if King intends to defect to North Korea, but if that is his intention, Sean Timmons, a military law expert, told a Canadian outlet that decision will likely be left up to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“It’s going to be up to the whims of their leadership, what they want to do,” Timmons said.
According to a US Army spokesperson, King served in the military branch since 2021 and was in South Korea as part of the 1st Armored Division of the United States Forces Korea.
The United States Forces Korea seemingly confirmed King planned to defect to North Korea, saying in a statement to US media that King “willfully and without authorization crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).”
A Facebook* post by a Swedish woman who claimed to be on the same tour as King said that he could be heard laughing as he ran across the border.
“To our right, we hear a loud HA-HA-HA and one guy from OUR GROUP that has been with us all day- runs in between two of the buildings and over to the other side!!” she wrote. “It took everybody a second to react and grasp what had actually happened, then we were ordered into and through Freedom House and running back to our military bus.”
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed the US military is aware of the situation. “This will develop in the next several days and hours, and we’ll keep you posted,” he said, noting that his primary concern is King’s wellbeing.
A UN Command spokesperson confirmed they are in contact with the DPRK about the incident: “We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA [Korean People’s Army] counterparts to resolve this incident.”