US soldier runs into North Korea after assault case
The US soldier who dashed across the heavily fortified border from South to North Korea previously attacked a police car and punched a man in the face at a Seoul nightclub.
Travis King, 23, who has created a fresh diplomatic crisis for Washington in dealing with the nuclear-armed authoritarian state, pleaded guilty to assault and destruction of public goods during an incident last October and had been fined $4,000 (£3,097), according to Reuters.
Private King was this week taken by a military escort to the airport but fled at the customs area and travelled to the “peace village” of Panmunjom where he joined a tour group in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) before bolting into North Korea.
The soldier had just finished a stint in detention for an unspecified infraction and had been due to return to his base in Fort Bliss, Texas, where he faced disciplinary action by the US military.
His mother, Claudine Gates, of Racine, Wisconsin, expressed shock at her son’s high-stakes gambit.
“I can’t see Travis doing anything like that,” she told ABC News after being informed by the military that Private King had crossed voluntarily into the authoritarian state and was now detained there.
She said she had last heard from her son “a few days ago,” when he told her he would return soon to the United States. She added she just wanted “him to come home”.
Punched a man in the face
According to Seoul court documents seen by Reuters, on Sept 25 last year Private King had punched a man in the face at a club several times but the case was settled.
Two weeks later, the police responded to a report of another altercation involving the soldier. They tried to question him but reported “aggressive behaviour”.
The court ruling said that he had shouted a tirade of expletives and insults against Koreans, the Korean army, and the Korean police, and kicked the door of a patrol car several times, causing about $460 (£356) in damages.
After his brief period of detention he had been released to the Camp Humphreys army base last week before being accompanied to Seoul’s Incheon international airport on Tuesday.
A tourist who accompanied Private King at Panmunjom said the group had been stunned when the US soldier ran between the blue huts straddling the border and over to the other side while laughing loudly.
The US government and US-led United Nations Command stationed at the border zone have said they are working to resolve the crisis and release Private King.
The DMZ has divided North and South since the 1950-53 Korean war.
Low ebb in relations
Private King’s detention comes at a particularly low ebb in relations between Pyongyang and Washington and South Korea.
The two allies strongly condemned the North’s test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile last week.
Meanwhile Pyongyang has been angered by the arrival in South Korea on Tuesday of a nuclear capable US Navy ballistic missile submarine for the first time in four decades.
Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary of Defence, said the military was working to establish the details of what happened and investigate the soldier’s current status.
“We’re very early in this event and so there’s a lot that we’re still trying to learn,” he said.
“I’m absolutely foremost concerned about the welfare of our troop. We will remain focused on this, and this will develop in the next several days.”
Private King, a reconnaissance specialist, had been on a rotation with the US military in South Korea, where 28,500 American troops are stationed.
