Border crossing to North Korea
Pyongyang: US soldier fled racism
8/16/2023 5:27 am
After being in prison in South Korea, a US soldier surprisingly crosses the border to the north. The Pyongyang regime claims the man fled because of racial discrimination in the army. He now wants to seek refuge in North Korea or another country.
A US soldier who fled South Korea to North Korea last month has admitted entering the country illegally to flee conditions in the US army, Pyongyang said. Soldier Travis King confessed “to illegally invading DPRK territory” and that he wanted to escape “the inhumane abuse and racial discrimination in the US Army,” the state news agency KCNA reported.
King is disillusioned with the “unequal society” in the US and ready to seek refuge in North Korea or a third country, it said. He was arrested by the people’s arms, the investigation continued. This is the first time the government has publicly commented on the case.
The soldier was due to be flown to the United States last week after a fight, an altercation with police and a jail term in South Korea. However, he managed to escape and join a sightseeing tour of the demilitarized zone. There he crossed the border from South to North Korea. At this point, the highly secured border between the two countries is only marked by a low concrete wall.
The incident came at a time when relations between North and South Korea are extremely tense and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un has called for increased preparations for war and the mass production of various weapons. The two Korean states remain technically at war. The conflict between 1950 and 1953 ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.