By Ju-min Park, Josh Smith and Matt Spetalnick
SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Army Private Travis T. King had finished serving time in detention in South Korea and was being escorted to the airport to fly home and likely face disciplinary action. But he never made it to his plane.
Instead, he passed alone through security to his departure gate and then fled, one official said. The Korea Times, citing an airport official, reported that King told airline workers he couldn’t board his flight because his passport was missing.
From there, King, 23, somehow joined a civilian tour of the heavily fortified demilitarized zone (DMZ) dividing South Korea and the North, where he bolted across the border on Tuesday as American and South Korean guards shouted “Get him!” – but to no avail.
So began a bizarre odyssey that has created a fresh problem for Washington in its dealings with the nuclear-armed state.
Though stopping short of branding King a defector, the U.S. military was scrambling on Wednesday to determine his fate, as well as his motive, after what officials said was a wilful, unauthorized crossing of the border that landed an active-duty American soldier in North Korean hands.
While much remains unknown, investigations by authorities from Seoul to Washington and witness accounts have begun slowly piecing together a picture of King and what transpired.
King, who joined the U.S. Army in January 2021, had served as a Cavalry Scout with the Korean Rotational Force, part of the decades-old U.S. security commitment to South Korea. His awards include the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Defense Service Medal and Overseas Service Ribbon.
‘BREAKING DOWN’
But Kings posting in South Korea was dogged by legal troubles.
A South Korean court ruling said King pleaded guilty to assault and damaging public property stemming from an incident in October and on Feb. 8 he was fined 5 million won ($4,000). The ruling said King had punched a man in the face at a club on Sept. 25 but the case was settled.
Then on Oct. 8 police responded to a report of another altercation involving King and tried to question him but he continued his “aggressive behavior,” kicking the door of a police car he was placed in and shouting expletives, according to the ruling.
U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said King had been due to face disciplinary action by the military on his return home to Fort Bliss, Texas. It was not clear if that was related to the October incident.
The question of what drove King to act as he did on Tuesday remains a mystery.
King’s uncle, Carl Gates, suggested that he had been in distress over the death of his 7-year-old cousin from a rare genetic disorder earlier this year.
Gates, who described himself as King’s “father figure,” told The Daily Beast he had been one of the last people to talk to him by phone before he crossed into North Korea. King is from Racine, Wisconsin, according news reports.
“It seemed like he was breaking down. It affected Travis a lot,” Gates said of his son’s death. “Because he couldn’t be here.”
CHAOTIC SCENE
Details of Tuesday’s chaotic scene at the border have begun to emerge.
“It all happened pretty quickly,” said Sarah Leslie, a New Zealander who was on the same tour in the Joint Security Area (JSA) of the DMZ. She was among some 40 other tourists who were walking around and taking photos in the moments before King made a dash to North Korea.
The group had just left one of the iconic blue buildings that straddles the border between the two Koreas and is used for negotiations, when King – wearing jeans, a black shirt and a black hat with the letters “DMZ” printed on it – suddenly ran between the structures toward the North, she said.
“I don’t think anyone who was sane would want to go to North Korea, so I assumed it was some kind of stunt,” she told Reuters. American soldiers and South Korean guards ran after him shouting but he was already on the north side of the border, Leslie said.
King’s exact whereabouts are still unknown, as well as what happens next.
North Korea is likely to milk the border crossing by a U.S. soldier for propaganda purposes but will probably not be able to gain political leverage, analysts and a former North Korean diplomat said.
Holding someone like King can also be a headache for the North if it drags on.
When a U.S. soldier defects, North Korea has to create a security and surveillance team for them, and arrange an interpreter, a private vehicle, driver and lodging, said former North Korean diplomat Tae Yong-ho, who is a now a member of South Korea’s parliament.
Pyongyang has a standard playbook for treating American and other Western detainees or defectors well to avoid political blowback, said Andrei Lankov, director of the Seoul-based Korea Risk Group. The notable exception was U.S. college student Otto Warmbier, who died in 2017 shortly after being released from a North Korea prison.
Detainees are often housed in the North Korean equivalent of a four-star hotel, Lankov said.
Still, analysts suggested that King’s stay in North Korea could be lengthy.
“It’s always good to resolve these ASAP, but I am not certain that will be the case,” said Victor Cha, a former U.S. official and Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“Historically, the North holds these folks for weeks, if not months, for propaganda purposes (especially if this is a U.S. soldier) before a coerced confession and apology,” he said.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Josh Smith in Seoul and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Don Durfee and Sandra Maler)
