A South Korean soldier stands guard at the Joint Security Area inside the Demilitarized Zone, May 9, 2023. (David Choi/Stars and Stripes)
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — The American soldier who ran into North Korea had been scheduled to fly to Texas to face disciplinary action after six weeks in a South Korean prison, but he slipped away from an airport near Seoul and made his way to the heavily fortified border, South Korean media and officials reported.
U.S. Forces Korea and the American-led United Nations Command offered no new details about the Tuesday incident.
South Korean court records detailed the offenses that had put him in jail.
Army Pvt. Travis King pleaded guilty to assaulting several people in October in Mapo, a popular nightclub district in Seoul, according to a trial summary.
On July 10, he left a prison in Cheonan city, 53 miles south of Seoul, specifically designed to hold foreign inmates, a corrections facility official told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday.
This family photo shows a portrait of American soldier Travis King displayed at the home of his grandfather Carl Gates, Wednesday, July 19, 2023, in Kenosha, Wis. King bolted into North Korea while on a tour of the Demilitarized Zone on Tuesday, July 18, a day after he was supposed to travel to a base in the U.S. (Morry Gash via AP)
King apparently walked out of Incheon International Airport on Monday after passing through security but before boarding a flight to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he could have faced further disciplinary action by the Army, according to The Associated Press.
A day later, King left a U.N. Command-sponsored tour group and crossed the heavily guarded border at the Joint Security Area in the Demilitarized Zone, where the 1953 truce suspending the Korean War was signed, and is presumably in North Korean custody, according to the Army.
A concrete slab marking the Military Demarcation Line is pictured from the North Korean side of the Joint Security Area, May 29, 2019. (Aaron Kidd/Stars and Stripes)
"We're closely monitoring and investigating the situation," U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said at a Pentagon press conference Tuesday, noting he was foremost concerned about the soldier’s wellbeing. "This will develop in the next several days and hours, and we'll keep you posted."
USFK did not respond to requests for further information Wednesday. A U.N. Command spokesman, Australian army Maj. Christopher Rickey, provided no new details.
“If and when the decision is made to release additional information, we will let you know,” he told Stars and Stripes in an email.
Seoul police arrested King just before 4 a.m. on Oct. 8 in Mapo and placed him in the backseat of a squad car, according to records from Seoul Western District Court. He refused to answer questions, kicked the car’s doors and ranted: “F--- Korean, f--- Korean Army, f--- Korean police.”
The court records redact the names of victims and the defendant; however, a court official on Tuesday confirmed by phone that King was the defendant in the case.
He was also fined about $3,950 and paid roughly $790 for damage to the police car, the records state.
King joined the Army in January 2021 and was a cavalry scout administratively assigned to the 4th Infantry Division in South Korea, according to Pentagon spokesman Bryce Dubee.
King was also accused of assault on Sept. 25, according to court records. Seoul police say he pushed and punched a fellow customer at a Mapo bar who refused to buy King a drink, records state.
South Korean officials regularly speak to the media on the customary condition of anonymity. South Korean law protects the identity of the accused unless in extreme cases of “cruel” crimes, such as homicide.
King faced disciplinary actions from the military and was in the process of being discharged.
Military police escorting King were not allowed to enter a security checkpoint at the airport, the Korea Times reported Tuesday. Once alone, King reportedly told an airline official that he had lost his passport and was led out to the departure gate with an employee.
U.N. Command is working with its North Korean counterparts to resolve the incident, it said Tuesday on Twitter.
Stars and Stripes reporter Yoo Kyong Chang contributed to this report.
