American Soldier Flees to North Korea

Travis King, the American soldier who fled to North Korea, had been detained after getting into fights in South Korea prior to crossing the border.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed concern about the soldier, who the US military in Korea said joined an orientation tour of the North-South Joint Security Area (JSA) and “deliberately and without authorization crossed the military demarcation line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)”.

King, 23, who spent nearly two months in a South Korean prison, was arrested on assault charges and released on July 10 after serving his sentence. On Monday, he was to be sent home to Fort Bliss, Texas, to face additional military disciplinary action and be dismissed from service.

American soldier fled from the airport

According to officials, he was taken to the airport and escorted to customs. But instead of boarding the plane, he left the airport and later joined a tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom.

On Tuesday afternoon, he crossed the border, which is guarded, but also often crowded with tourists. It is not yet clear how King got to the border and how he spent the hours between leaving the airport on Monday and crossing the border a day later.

“There’s a lot we’re still trying to learn,” Austin said at a media briefing. “We believe he is in (North Korean) custody and therefore we are closely monitoring and investigating the situation and working to notify the soldier’s next of kin,” he added.

Pte King’s mother Claudine Gates told ABC News she could not imagine her son doing such a thing. He “had to be out of his mind”, she said.

JSA is a section on Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea

Also known as Panmunjom or the “peace” or “truce” village, the JSA is a section on the 250km-long Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea.

In 1948, when the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) were created, the DMZ marked the border between the two countries.

In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, starting the Korean war, which ended in an armistice in 1953, signed at the JSA, at which point the DMZ became a 2km-wide buffer zone. The DMZ is lined on both sides with razor wire, heavy armaments and tank traps.

The peace village is made up of bright United Nations-blue buildings, bisected by a military demarcation line. The two Koreas have their own liaison offices and conference halls in the JSA and troops from each country face each other across the military demarcation line, but despite working at close quarters, communication is often strained.

During periods of high tensions phone hotlines often go unanswered, forcing US or South Korean officials to try to shout across the border.