North Korea has claimed that an American soldier who bolted across the heavily armed border from the South wants to seek refuge from “inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination” in the US military.
In its first public acknowledgment that Private 2nd class Travis King entered the North while on a tour of a Korean border village on 18 July, the regime said the 23-year-old had voiced “disillusionment” with US society.
“During the investigation, Travis King confessed that he had decided to come over to the DPRK as he harboured ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the US army,” the state-run news agency KCNA said on Wednesday, using the initials of North Korea’s official name.
“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 said King was being “kept under control” by soldiers from the North’s Korean People’s Army.
While King’s comments could not be independently verified, his detention in North Korea – the first involving an American for nearly five years – is a propaganda coup for the regime.
KCNA, the official voice of the North Korean dictatorship, releases statements to support its contention that that the US is a depraved adversary bent on invading the North.
“King’s crossing into North Korea provided the Kim regime an opportunity in several ways, the first of which is, of course, the potential for negotiations with the US over King’s release,” said Soo Kim, an expert with Virginia-based consultancy LMI and a former CIA analyst.
“It’s also an opportunity for the regime propaganda to do its thing – to spin the situation in such a way as to criticise the US and express Pyongyang’s deep-rooted hostility towards Washington.”
The Pentagon on Tuesday said it could not verify King’s alleged comments.
“We remain focused on his safe return,” a Pentagon spokesperson said. “The department’s priority is to bring Private King home, and that we are working through all available channels to achieve that outcome.”
North Korea said its investigation into King would continue.
Analysts believe North Korea could try to exploit King’s case to win concessions from the US, such as tying his release to the US cutting back its military activities with South Korea.
King’s border crossing came amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has conducted more than 100 weapons tests since the beginning of 2022, prompting the US to expand its military drills with the South. North Korea views the joint exercises as rehearsals for an invasion.
King faced two allegations of assault in South Korea when he crossed the demilitarised zone – the border that has separated the two Koreas since the end of their 1950-53 war. He had pleaded guilty to one instance of assault and destroying public property for damaging a police car during a profanity-laced tirade against Koreans, according to court documents.
King had finished serving a period in military detention in South Korea and was due to face more disciplinary measures at Fort Bliss, Texas, when he absconded from Incheon international airport, where he had been taken to catch his flight home.
The following day he joined a civilian tour of the DMZ, where he ran across the demarcation line separating North and South Korea, despite attempts by South Korean and US guards to stop him.
According to US officials, King – who chose to serve his time at a labour camp rather than pay a fine of about $4,000 – has been declared absent without leave (awol). The punishment can include confinement in the brig, forfeiture of pay, or dishonourable discharge, largely based on how long the abscondee was away and whether they were apprehended or returned on their own.
North Korea has previously held a number of Americans who were arrested for anti-state, espionage and other charges. But no other Americans were known to have been detained since the North expelled Bruce Byron Lowrance in 2018. During the cold war a small number of US soldiers who fled to North Korea later appeared in the regime’s propaganda films.