July 19th 2023.
The U.S. Army soldier who crossed the heavily forbidden North Korean border has been identified as Travis King. Pvt. 2nd Class King, 23, is now in North Korean custody.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that King had crossed into North Korea “willfully and without authorization” on July 18, 2023.
Previously, King had been in South Korea and was being escorted by the military to Incheon International Airport outside Seoul for further disciplinary action in the United States.
However, he joined a tour group headed for the joint security area instead of going to his gate. Sarah Leslie, a witness and tour group member, recounted the scene: “Everybody was stunned and shocked. There were some people who hadn’t even realized what was going on.”
King had been in the military since 2021 and had several run-ins with South Korean law officials. In Sept. 2022, he was accused of punching a Korean national at a nightclub in Seoul. Later, in February 2023, he was fined $3,950 in the capital city for repeatedly kicking a police patrol car and was charged with damaging public property. He landed in jail after failing to cooperate with officers at the scene and shouting profanities about Koreans and the Korean army.
With the tour visiting the Demilitarized Zone dividing South and North Korea, Leslie thought King's actions were a prank. “I assumed initially he had a mate filming him in some kind of really stupid prank or stunt, like a TikTok, the most stupid thing you could do,” she said. “But then I heard one of the soldiers shout, ‘Get that guy.’”
She added that it all happened very quickly and that the soldiers didn’t have much time to respond. King ran about 30 feet through a gap between the distinctive blue buildings and once he was over the border, he disappeared from sight.
King is the first known American to be detained in North Korea since Bruce Byron Lowrance, who was caught entering from China in 2018.
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