North Korea may want a 'price' to return US Army defector Travis King

July 24, 2023

North Korea will want a ‘price’ to return US Army defector Travis King, US official warns

Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Sunday he fears North Korea may capitalize on a soldier’s defection
US Army Private 2nd Class Travis King dashed past the demilitarized zone into the communist country last Tuesday
His defection comes amid heightened tensions between the US and North Korea

A top US foreign affairs official fears North Korea may set a ‘price’ to get an American soldier who defected into the country sent back home.

US Army Private 2nd Class Travis King had been facing disciplinary action for a string of alleged crimes in South Korea when he dashed past the demilitarized zone into the communist country last Tuesday.

Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, now says the North Koreans may capitalize on the 23-year-old from Wisconsin’s defection.

‘I’m sure that he’s not being treated very well,’ McCaul told ABC This Week’s Martha Raddatz Sunday. ‘I think it was a serious mistake on his part, and I hope we can get him back.

‘We see this with Russia, China, Iran: When they take an American, particularly a soldier, captive, they exact a price for that,’ he continued. ‘And that’s what I worry about.’

Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Sunday he worried the North Koreans may want a ‘price’ to return a US Army defector

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Speaking of King’s decision to enter the communist country, McCaul suggested ‘he was running away from his problems.’

‘He was facing disciplinary charges, and was gonna get a flight back to the United States,’ McCaul explained.

That plane would have brought King to Texas, where he would face a ‘ending administrative separation actions for foreign conviction’ hearing, after he had already served 47 days in a South Korean detention facility.

‘But instead, he did not board the plane, went with a tour group to the DMZ and then ran across the line,’ McCaul said. ‘That’s something you just don’t do.’

King’s escape into the country comes amid heightened tensions between the US and North Korea, with officials there complaining in recent weeks of a US nuclear submarine docked in South Korea.

When asked about the ramifications of having the submarine so close to the authoritarian country, McCaul claimed it is important for the US to show strength.

‘It’s a projection of strength that we need right now to deter aggression,’ McCaul said of the USS Kentucky.

‘We’re seeing a very aggressive — not only North Korea and the rockets fired in the Sea of Japan — but also the aggression we see from China.

‘North Korea needs to know that we’re there, that we have superiority with the nuclear subs,’ McCaul explained.

‘We need to get in their head and [Chinese] Chairman Xi [Jinping]’s head that if thy do anything that’s aggressive militarily, there will be consequences to that.’

King, circled, is pictured during the tour moments before his dash across the border into North Korea

King had been scheduled to board a flight back to the United States to face a disciplinary hearing

King had been fined for assault while stationed in South Korea and had been detained for more than a month before being escorted to Incheon International Airport by the U.S. military for a commercial flight to Dallas, Texas, according to U.S. officials.

Once past security checks, he told airline staff at the departure gate he had lost his passport and returned to the terminal, an airport official said on condition of anonymity.

King then joined a civilian tour of the Panmunjom truce village when he dashed across the Military Demarcation Line that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953.

A sightseer on the border tour captured King in a photograph moments before he bolted into the secretive communist state.

King was seen wearing a black t-shirt and hat purchased from a gift shop at the demilitarized zone as he peers across the border into the secretive communist country.

Witnesses said he laughed hysterically as he made the mad dash after fleeing his military superiors and joining the tour.

The tourist who witnessed King’s crossing and took the photo of the soldier, Sarah Leslie from New Zealand, said she initially believed it was a stunt ‘for TikTok’.

The group left Seoul by bus in the early morning, and Leslie noticed that King was traveling alone and didn’t seem to talk to others on the tour. At one point, she said, he bought a DMZ hat from a gift shop.

The tour was nearing its end Tuesday afternoon — the group had just walked out of the building and were milling about taking photos — when she saw King running ‘really fast’.

‘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,’ Leslie said. ‘But then I heard one of the soldiers shout, ‘Get that guy.”

King had been fined for assault while stationed in South Korea and had been detained for more than a month

His escape comes amid heightened tensions with North Korea, which has spoken out in recent weeks about the USS Kentucky ballistic missile submarine docking in South Korea

Thus far, North Korean officials have been silent about King’s condition in the communist country, despite Biden administration officials reaching out through ‘multiple channels.’

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the U.S. Army’s counter-intelligence office and U.S. forces in South Korea are now carrying out an investigation into what drove King to make such a puzzling decision.

Singh declined to directly respond to a question about whether the Pentagon believed King was still alive. She said the U.S. military could not offer any information at all about King’s status.

‘We don’t know his condition. We don’t know where he’s being held. We don’t know the status of his health,’ Singh said, describing his formal status in the military as ‘AWOL,’ or absent without leave.

Meanwhile, King’s mother, Claudine Gates said she just wants her son back.

‘Get my son home, get my son home, and pray. Pray that he comes back,’ she told local television station WISN.

She also said she was ‘so proud’ of her son and added: ‘I just want him to come home, come back to America.’

Gates, from Racine, Wisconsin, added: ‘I can’t see Travis doing anything like that.’

Other family members suggested King was not thinking clearly when he fled into North Korea.

‘From my knowledge, I just heard that he, I guess, got into a fight with some Koreans,’ his uncle, Myron Gates said.

‘And it was kind of hard, you know, to believe in that too. Like, somebody had to push him to do that because he’s not a violent-type person.’

Myron and Carl Gates, King’s grandfather said that they were both confused and concerned for King’s well-being.

‘I was really surprised. I heard about it from my little niece, she had sent me a link and I read his name, Travis King. I’m like, huh? It just tripped me out,’ Myron Gates said.

‘I think something’s wrong with him. He ain’t thinking clear. I don’t think he would just run like that. I can’t see that,’ said Carl Gates.

Speaking from her home in Racine, Wisconsin, King’s mother Claudine Gates expressed her desire to have her son back and urged people to pray for his well-being

‘Somebody had to push him to do that because he’s not a violent-type person,’ said Myron Gates, uncle of American soldier Travis King

Court records reveal King pleaded guilty to assault and destruction of public goods stemming from an October incident, and on February 8 the Seoul Western District Court fined him 5 million won ($4,000), according to a copy of the ruling reviewed by Reuters.

Two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the soldier had been due to face disciplinary action by the U.S. military. It’s not clear whether the disciplinary action was linked to his conviction over damaging the police vehicle.

The Seoul court said on September 25 last year King punched a man in the face at a club several times but the case was settled.

Two weeks later, on October 8, police officers responded to a report of another altercation involving King, and tried to question him. He continued with his ‘aggressive behavior’ without answering questions from police, according to the court document.

Police placed him in the backseat of their patrol car where he shouted expletives and insults against Koreans, the Korean army, and the Korean police, the ruling said.

During his tirade, he kicked the vehicle’s door several times, causing about 584,000 won ($461) in damages, the ruling said.

The court said the defendant had admitted to the charges, had no previous criminal record, and paid 1 million won ($790) to fix the vehicle, citing reasons in favor of him in the sentencing.