STORY: North Korea says Travis King, the U.S. Military personal who dashed throughout the border from South Korea final month – needs refuge from racism and mistreatment within the US both within the North or out of the country.
That is the primary time Pyongyang has publicly confirmed King crossed over the closely guarded demilitarized zone on July 17.
The North’s official state information company KCNA posted on its web site that in an investigation, “Travis King confessed that he had determined to come back over to the DPRK as he harbored ailing feeling towards inhumane maltreatment and racial discrimination throughout the U.S. Military.”
“He additionally expressed his willingness to hunt refuge within the DPRK or a 3rd nation, saying that he felt disillusioned with the unequal American society.”
DPRK stands for the North’s official title, the Democratic Individuals’s Republic of Korea.
KCNA additionally stated King was “saved below management by troopers” in North Korea, and that the investigation they talked about remains to be energetic.
U.S. officers consider King crossed the border deliberately – whereas on a civilian tour of the Joint Safety Space between the 2 Koreas – and have declined thus far to name him a prisoner of struggle.
U.S. officers additionally say the North has not offered substantive responses to their queries on King.
The Pentagon stated it couldn’t confirm the North’s model of King’s feedback as KCNA had reported them and stated it stays targeted on his protected return.
King beforehand confronted two allegations of assault in South Korea… pleading responsible to a kind of allegations… in addition to damaging a police automotive throughout a profanity-laced tirade towards Koreans, based on court docket paperwork.
After ending navy detention in South Korea, King was taken to the airport to return to his house unit in america.
He was alleged to face extra disciplinary measures upon arrival.
However as a substitute, King left the airport, joined a tour of the border, and crossed the DMZ regardless of makes an attempt by South Korean and U.S. guards to cease him.