North Korea’s official news agency KCNA said on Wednesday, citing an investigative report, that a US soldier who entered North Korea in July “admitted to entering it illegally.”
• Also read: The agreement between Russia and North Korea may violate UN resolutions
• Also read: A new rapprochement between Putin and North Korea
• Also read: Kim Jong Un calls on North Korea to intensify missile production
The Korean Central News Agency, using North Korea’s official name, reported that “According to an investigation conducted by a competent body of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, editor’s note), Travis King admitted to entering the territory of the DPRK illegally.
This is Pyongyang’s first public statement since the King’s case began. This American soldier was supposed to return to the United States after getting into trouble with justice in South Korea, but he actually crossed the border with North Korea on July 18 while mingling with a group of tourists visiting the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas.
“During the investigation, Travis King said that he decided to come to the DPRK because he abhors the inhumane treatment and racial discrimination in the US military,” the agency said.
The agency added that Travis King was “kept under the control of KPA soldiers as he deliberately entered” a North Korean territory, confirming the army’s arrest for the first time.
Mr. King “confirmed his desire to seek refuge in the DPRK or in a third country, saying he was disappointed with the unequal American society,” and reaffirmed to KCNA, specifying that an investigation by the regime was still underway.
Private Travis King has been released from prison in South Korea after a bar fight and a scuffle with police. He was scheduled to return to the United States to face disciplinary action.
On Thursday, August 3, the US command indicated that Pyongyang was “responsive” to requests about the soldier.
But chief of diplomacy Anthony Blinken, who also confirmed contact with Pyongyang had been established, said he had no information on Travis King’s whereabouts or health condition.
The two Koreas are still technically at war since 1953, because it was an armistice, not a peace treaty, that ended the armed conflict.
Fortifications abound on the border, but only a concrete wall separates them at the level of the Joint Security Area (JSA), which is still less difficult to cross despite the presence of soldiers.
