A U.S. soldier who dashed across the heavily armed Korean border last month has reportedly said he illegally intruded into North Korea with an intent to “seek refuge,” according to North Korea’s state media.
Pvt. King served two months in a South Korean prison for assault and was due to return to Fort Bliss, Texas—where he could have faced additional military discipline and discharge from the service—on July 18.
KCNA claimed that Pvt. King stated that he had decided to cross into North Korea because he “harbored ill feelings against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army.”
“He also expressed his willingness to seek refugee in the DPRK or a third country, saying that he was disillusioned at the unequal American society,” KCNA stated.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name. KCNA asserted that “a relevant organ of the DPRK” is investigating the case.
The United States had repeatedly requested an update from the North Korean regime but received no response.
Soldier’s Family Appeals to North Korea
The soldier’s mother, Claudine Gates, has appealed to North Korea to treat her son “humanely” and said that she was hoping to receive “a phone call” from him, according to family spokesman Jonathan Franks.“Lastly, she has been in touch with the Army this evening and appreciates a [Defense Department] statement that it remains focused on bringing Travis home,” Mr. Franks said.
Soo Kim, an expert with Virginia-based consultancy LMI and a former CIA analyst, said that this could be part of “North Korean propaganda” as the detained U.S. citizen will have “no sway in how North Korea chooses to cast its narrative.”
“As for King’s release, his fate rests in North Korea’s hands. Perhaps the regime will try to ‘bargain’ King’s life in exchange for financial concessions from the U.S. More than likely, negotiations won’t be easy, and terms will be dictated by Pyongyang,” she said.
While more than 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea to avoid political oppression and economic difficulties since the end of the 1950–1953 Korean War, cases of Americans or South Koreans defecting to North Korea are rare.
A small number of U.S. soldiers went to North Korea during the Cold War, including Charles Jenkins, who deserted his Army post in South Korea in 1965 and fled across the DMZ. He appeared in North Korean propaganda films and married a Japanese nursing student who had been abducted from Japan by North Korean agents. He died in Japan in 2017.
