US soldier who entered North Korea pleads guilty to desertion

WASHINGTON - A US soldier who crossed into North Korea in 2023 pleaded guilty to desertion as part of a plea agreement on Sept 20 and was sentenced to 12 months of confinement, his lawyer said.

Because of good behaviour and time served, the soldier, Travis King, was released, according to the lawyer.

King was facing 14 charges related to him

fleeing across the border from South Korea into the North

in July 2023 while on a sightseeing tour of the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that divides the Korean Peninsula, and prior incidents.

But he pleaded guilty to just five – desertion, assault on a non-commissioned officer, and three counts of disobeying an officer – as part of a deal that was accepted on Sept 20 by a military judge.

“The judge, under the terms of the plea deal, sentenced Travis to one year of confinement, reduction in rank to private (E-1), forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and a dishonourable discharge,” a statement from King’s attorney Franklin Rosenblatt said.

“With time already served and credit for good behaviour, Travis is now free and will return home,” the statement said.

“Travis King has faced significant challenges throughout his life, including a difficult upbringing, exposure to criminal environments and struggles with mental health,” Mr Rosenblatt said. “All these factors have compounded the hardships he faced in the military.”

In a statement, the US Army’s Office of Special Trial Counsel confirmed King’s guilty plea as part of a deal and said that “pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement, all other charges and specifications were dismissed”.

“The outcome of today’s court-martial is a fair and just result that reflects the seriousness of the offences committed by Pvt. King,” prosecutor Major Allyson Montgomery said in the statement.

At the time of the incident, King had been stationed in South Korea, and after a drunken bar fight and a stay in South Korean jail, he was supposed to fly back to Texas to face disciplinary hearings.

Instead of doing so, he walked out of the Seoul-area airport,

joined a DMZ sightseeing trip

and slipped over the fortified border where he was detained by the communist North’s authorities.

Pyongyang had said that King had defected to North Korea to

escape “mistreatment and racial discrimination

in the US Army.”

But after completing its investigation, North Korea “decided to expel” King in September for illegally intruding into its territory. AFP