Did Travis T. King plan to escape to North Korea or did he decide on the spur of the moment while visiting the dividing line with a group of tourists? The 23-year-old Private Second Class, who had escaped the day before just before boarding a plane that would take him back to the United States, let out a loud laugh as he ran into the tight-knit regime Tuesday evening.
“We heard a loud ha, ha, ha to our right, and a boy from our group ran out to the other side,” wrote on Facebook a Swedish citizen who was participating in the visit of the joint security area (JSA, for its acronym in English).
The serviceman, who had joined the army in 2021, was released from a South Korean prison last week after serving almost two months for punching a man in a Seoul club in September. He also had to pay a fine of around 3,458 euros after admitting that he smashed the door of a patrol car. The officers had stopped him and he refused to cooperate. On the day of the apparent escape, King was on his way to the plane that was to return him to Fort Bliss (Texas), where he was facing disciplinary measures for the assault conviction.
The soldier disappeared while visiting Panmunjom, also known as the truce village, for being the place where the armistice was signed in 1953 between the two Koreas, which are technically still at war. The town is located in the heart of the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the four kilometer wide strip that forms the border between the two countries. A day earlier, the young man was escorted by the military police to Inchon International Airport. The agents left him alone to go through security, after which he arrived at the boarding gate, where he said he had lost his passport, airport sources told the Korea Times. At the same airport, King is believed to have been able to join a visit to the JSA, a non-profit organization that operates independently of the US Department of Defense, the Korean Herald reveals. Once there, King broke away from the group and started running towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. He was chased by the guides, who did not catch him, and arrested by North Korean guards. His mother believes such a risky decision is out of character for her son, she told ABC News.
Some experts agree that Pyongyang will probably end up deporting him because of pending disciplinary measures there. It will not be a quick repatriation, due to the long stagnation of relations between Pyongyang and Washington, believes North Korean defector Thae Yong-ho, who has now become a deputy of the ruling People’s Power Party in South Korea, in statements to the Korea Herald.
Its fate will also depend on whether Kim Jong-un sees it as a good propaganda opportunity, or whether he wants to focus on the “illegal” nature of the crossing and treat him as a criminal with bad intentions, Rachel Minyoung Lee of the US-based Stimson Center told Reuters. The expert does not believe that North Korea sees the incident as an opportunity to seek a change in Washington’s policy towards North Korea at a time of high tension.
The authorities in Washington, for their part, can do little to pressure the regime of Kim Jong-un, since the apparent deserter entered North Korean territory voluntarily. “Since he was not abducted, the United States cannot impose additional sanctions on the regime or even criticize it,” said Oh Gyeong-seob, the lead researcher at the Korean Institute for National Unification’s expert group, to the Korea Times. “Now it depends on the leadership of North Korea to decide if it can stay,” he adds.
