Entered North Korea and then expelled, Private Travis King "in hands" of the United States
North Korea deported Travis King, the U.S. soldier who entered its territory illegally in July 2023. It was handed over "into the hands" of the United States.
A portrait broadcast on South Korean television of American soldier Travis King. © Ahn Young-joon / AP
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With our correspondent in Seoul, Nicolas Rocca
The dispatch, laconic by the North Korean news agency, did not specify the next destination of the American soldier, who entered North Korea on July 18. A U.S. official said Wednesday, September 27, that Travis King was "in the hands of the United States."
The man, who was among the 28,500 U.S. military personnel stationed in South Korea, had escaped the surveillance of the guards of the Joint Security Zone to cross into North Korean territory. He had taken advantage of the guided tour of the area between the two Koreas to cross the border.
A decision that could have been motivated by his legal troubles. He had spent more than a month in detention in South Korea for hitting a South Korean man and damaging police vehicles. The soldier was expected in the United States to face further disciplinary proceedings when he chose to defect. But the North Korean regime's propaganda explained his gesture by the inhumane treatment and racial discrimination he allegedly suffered within the US military.
In its only other dispatch on the subject in August, the North Korean news agency had indicated that its disillusionment with "the unequal American society" would have pushed Travis King to seek asylum in North Korea or in "a third country".
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- North Korea
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