North Korea Says It Will Deport US Soldier Who Illegally Crossed Border

A group of tourists stand near a border station at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, on July 18, 2023. (Sarah Jane Leslie/AP Photo)

North Korea has announced that it will deport a U.S. soldier who dashed across the heavily armed Korean border in July, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Sept. 27.

The soldier, identified as 23-year-old Pvt. Travis King, crossed the border into North Korea while on a civilian tour of the Joint Security Area in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas on July 18.

KCNA said that Pvt. King will face deportation after an investigation by the North Korean regime determined that he had “illegally” entered the country’s territory in the joint security area of Panmunjom.

Pvt. King also allegedly confessed to North Korean authorities that he had decided to cross into the country because he harbored “ill feelings against inhumane maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army” and “disillusionment with the unequal U.S. society.”

“The relevant organ of the DPRK decided to expel Travis King, a soldier of the U.S. Army who illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK, under the law of the Republic,” KCNA said, referring to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

It did not specify when or where he would be deported. The report also did not provide any information regarding his health status.

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Pvt. King was a cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division who had served nearly two months in a South Korean prison for assault. He was released on July 10 and was due to return to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he could have faced additional military discipline.

After his border crossing, Washington made attempts to contact Pyongyang but received no response. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that Pvt. King had “willfully and without authorization” crossed the military demarcation line.

North Korea eventually released information in August saying that Pvt. King had been “kept under control” by its soldiers. It also claimed that Pvt. King had expressed willingness “to seek refugee in the DPRK or a third country.”

Cases of Americans or South Koreans defecting to North Korea are rare. However, 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.

Panmunjom, located inside the 154-mile-long DMZ, has been jointly overseen by the U.N. Command and North Korea since its creation at the close of the Korean War. Bloodshed and gunfire have occasionally occurred there, but it has also been a venue for numerous talks and is a popular tourist spot.

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.

Jack Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report.