Everything We Know About The 23-Year-Old US Soldier Who Fled To North Korea
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A 23-year-old U.S. soldier crossed into North Korea on Tuesday “willfully and without authorization,” reports indicate. Travis King was on a tour when he took tourists by surprise and ran across the border. He is believed to currently be in the custody of North Korean armed forces, although Pyongyang has not yet responded to attempted… Continue reading Everything We Know About The 23-Year-Old US Soldier Who Fled To North Korea
King wore civilian clothes — jeans and a T-shirt — and joined a group of 43 tourists visiting the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. He sprinted across the border before anyone had time to respond.
Sarah Leslie, a woman present during the tour, said he laughed out loud before bolting off, according to NPR. She shared that she had to submit her passport before taking part in the tour, which usually takes three days of planning because of security measures.
“I’m absolutely foremost concerned about the welfare of our troop,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a press conference.
King’s family said they were shocked to hear the news and that defecting was “out of his character.”
“I’ve never seen him get down like that, ever. Something’s going on. This is not his personality,” his uncle Myron Gates told NBC News.
US Army on American soldier crossing border into North Korea:
It isn’t the first time an American has been detained by North Korea. In 2016, U.S. college student Otto Warmbier was held for over a year after being accused of taking a poster from his hotel. Warmbier was released to U.S. officials while in a coma and died days after returning to the United States.
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