Travis King: What we know so far about North Korea’s detention of an American soldier

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By Jan Mackenzie in Seoul and Emily McGarvey in London, BBC News July 19, 2023

Updated 3 hours ago

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South Korean soldiers on standby at the Military Demarcation Line (file pic)

The crisis comes at a particularly tense time with the North, one of the world’s most isolated countries. The United States asks its citizens not to go there.

Here we take a look at what we know so far about the crash.

What happened at the border?

Private Second Class (PV2) Travis King, 23, crossed from South Korea into the North after joining a border tour in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

At the time, he was being escorted back to the United States to face disciplinary action.

But he did not take the plane. Instead, he reportedly arrived at the boarding gate at Incheon airport alone as military police officers were not allowed to escort him all the way to the plane.

At the gate, he was reportedly approached by an American Airlines official, claiming his passport had gone missing. He was then escorted out of the departures area by an airline employee.

He then made his way out of the station to the border crossing some 54 kilometers (34 miles) away.

An eyewitness on the same border tour described hearing the soldier laughing loudly before running.

The United Nations Command, which administers the demilitarized zone, said it believed the soldier was now being held in the north.

A senior US commander said there had been no contact with the soldier and that US Forces Korea was investigating the incident.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the main concern of the Pentagon is the welfare of the soldier.

White House press secretary Karen Jean-Pierre said they were “still gathering all the facts.”

“Our primary goal is to make sure we make sure he’s safe, to know how he’s doing, but also obviously we’re committed to getting him home,” she said on Wednesday.

What do we know about the soldier?

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Travis King (circled) at the border between North and South Korea shortly before he collided with the North

PV2 King has been in the Army since January 2021. He is a Cavalry Scout – a reconnaissance specialist – originally assigned to a component of the Army’s 1st Armored Division rotating with the US Army in South Korea.

He had been held in a detention center in the South Korean capital, Seoul, after he got into a fight. He was reportedly investigated for assault in September 2022.

Local media reported that he was suspected of beating up a Korean national at a nightclub in Seoul.

He was also fined 5 million won (£3,000; $3,950) for “repeatedly kicking” the back door of a police car and shouting “obscene language” at officers trying to arrest him.

According to local reports, citing officials, he was released on July 10 after serving two months in prison for assault.

He was released to Camp Humphreys – a military base in South Korea – for overseas processing.

Later, he was escorted to Seoul’s Incheon Airport for the flight back to the United States, where he was scheduled to face disciplinary action.

A US defense official confirmed that PV2 King was scheduled to travel to Fort Bliss in Texas where he was to be administratively separated from the Army.

A defense official said the soldier had “intentionally” crossed the border.

New Zealand tourist Sarah Leslie, who was on the set of PV2 King, told the AP she noticed him “running what looked like full gas toward the North Korean side.”

“Everyone was stunned and shocked,” she added.

South Korean and American soldiers ran after him, but were unable to catch him, she said.

Meanwhile, another witness from a tour group told CBS News, the BBC’s news partner in the United States, that the tour group was hastily taken to Freedom House for everyone to give their statements.

They said the accident hit them hard when they were on their departing bus.

The group was at a checkpoint when “someone said we went in 43 and 42 came back”.

What does his family say?

explain video,

WATCH: Travis King’s brother speaks after North Korea’s arrest

On PV2, King’s mother Claudine Gates told ABC News that she could not imagine her son doing such a thing. “He must have been out of his mind,” she said.

Ms Gates said she last heard from the US soldier “a few days ago”, when he told her he would soon return to the Fort Bliss military base in Texas.

Carl Gates, his uncle, told The Daily Beast that PV2 King was “breaking down” emotionally after the death of his 7-year-old cousin.

His uncle said PV2 King started acting “reckless” and “crazy” around the time of his cousin’s death in February.

Did the soldier plan his move?

It is likely that the soldier’s move was pre-planned.

North Korean podcast host Jaco Zwetsloot worked for a tour company in 2012 that ferried American soldiers to the Japanese intelligence agency. “There’s no way this person can run away from the airport one day and book one of these tours the next,” he says.

He explains that it usually takes three days for you to be cleared to go on one of these trips. You need to provide your passport number and military ID to the United Nations Command, which manages the area.

“When I was leading the rides, we had to change the response time from 48 to 72 hours because there were so many bugs,” he says.

Also, since the pandemic, it has become very difficult to participate in these tours. They have only recently been restarted, and only a couple of companies seem to offer tours to foreigners. To book this would have required research and planning.

Why is this so difficult for the United States?

Recently escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula have become a foreign policy priority for US President Joe Biden’s administration.

The incident came on the day a US nuclear missile submarine arrived at the port of Pusan ​​in South Korea – a visual display of US military might that angered the North Koreans.

This step was a response by the United States to over a hundred new North Korean missile tests over the past few years.

The soldier could become a new bargaining chip for North Korea to use when dealing with the United States.

What happened to Americans who were held captive by North Korea in the past?

There are US citizens who have been arrested there several times since 1996. They include tourists, scientists and journalists.

In July 2017, the US government banned US citizens from visiting the country – a move that has since been extended until at least August this year.

American prisoners are often brutalized in North Korean prisons.

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