Family of Travis King pleads with officials including VP Kamala Harris during her visit to Wisconsin

Drake Bentley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
·4 min read
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A group of tourists stand near a border station at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, on July 18. Not long after this photo was taken, Travis King, a U.S. soldier, bolted across the border and became the first known American detained in the North in nearly five years.
A group of tourists stand near a border station at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, on July 18. Not long after this photo was taken, Travis King, a U.S. soldier, bolted across the border and became the first known American detained in the North in nearly five years.
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The family of Travis King, the Racine soldier held in North Korea, is making a public plea for his return to federal officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris, as she was in the area Thursday to tout the president's economic agenda.

Harris was asked by TMJ4 reporter Charles Benson at Thursday's event what more could be done to help return King to the U.S. and whether or not she has spoken to or met with the family.

"First of all, it's just tragic," Harris said. "I know how his family is suffering and we're doing everything we can to bring him home. The Department of Defense is working actively on this, through our State Department, there's a lot of activity on this. And we're gonna do everything we can to bring him home."

Members of King's family lined the streets in Pleasant Prairie with images of King on T-shirts as the vice president's motorcade drove by, hopeful that Harris would touch base with the family. King is a 2020 graduate of Park High School in Racine.

King's uncle Myron Gates told the Journal Sentinel Thursday afternoon that the family has not heard from any elected officials, although they have spoken to congressional staff.

"We went out there in hopes of speaking to Kamala Harris," Gates said. "And one of the reporters even let her know that we was out there. So she knew we was out there. We kind of viewed it as a slap to our face because all she really did was just drive by and we still don't know nothing."

U.S. officials say King, 23, bolted across the border on July 18 while on a public tour at the Demilitarized Zone. A day before, the U.S. Army private was supposed to travel to a base in the U.S.

He recently served two months in a South Korean prison for assault and was scheduled to return to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he could have faced additional military discipline and discharge, but departed the airport before boarding his plane.

Gates disputes the length of time that King served. He said King was behind bars for roughly eight months.

Claudine Gates, King's mother, has been having a difficult time with the situation and was temporarily hospitalized as a result. She told ABC News Wednesday that she doesn't believe her son would have risked his life by escaping across the heavily fortified area.

"Travis would not just go over the border like that. He's the type of kid he would've wanted to come home," she said. "He knew just going across the border is basically committing suicide."

The family added in the interview that King was struggling mentally months prior to his disappearance. He had been sending the family cryptic messages by phone or text.

"When he first went to Korea, he was sending pictures home and he was just so happy. And then, as time went on, he just started fading away. I didn't hear from him anymore," Claudine Gates said.

Claudine Gates said her life "just changed in the blink of an eye. ... I was a very, very happy person. And now, I just worry."

Myron Gates said he doesn't believe any narrative that King prefers to be in North Korea because of the consequences he faces back home. "We don't believe that," Myron Gates said. "He would want to come home.

"A lot of people speculating, tarnishing his name, making up stories. That's another reason why we want the White House to reach out to us and let us know what's really going on because social media is making it into a whole bunch of different things."

On Tuesday, U.S. officials said that North Korea responded to a communication from the American-led United Nations Command, but said it was a simple "acknowledgement" that King was in the country and nothing further.

Drake Bentley can be reached at DBentley1@gannett.com.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Travis King's family pleads with Vice President Kamala Harris for help