According to North Korean sources, the US soldier who crossed the border has applied for asylum in the country.

2023-08-16 01:25:51

North Korea is “investigating” the US soldier who crossed its border last monthaccording to Pyongyang state media, which added that the military has requested asylum in the country after feeling mistreated in the United States Army.

“Travis King (name of the American soldier) has confessed that he decided to come to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (official name of the country) because harbored discomfort at the inhumane treatment and the racial discrimination within the United States Army”said today in a note the state agency KCNA.

This is the first confirmation from the regime’s media about the situation of King, who crossed the Military Demarcation Line on July 18 and entered North Korean territory. while on a sightseeing tour of the Joint Security Zone (JSA) in the heart of the border between the two Koreas.

Pyongyang, however, was in contact with the United States about the situation of the soldierwho is believed to have been detained by the regime since he crossed the border, the Pentagon and the United Nations Command in Korea had said.

Travis King “illegally entered the territory” of North Korea on the 18th and “came under the control of North Korean soldiers” after having deliberately entered the North Korean zone on the other side of the military demarcation line, according to the KCNA.

the american soldier “expressed his desire to seek asylum” in North Korea “or in a third country”noting his “disillusionment with the inequality in American society”, according to the Pyongyang propaganda outlet, which adds that the investigation into King “continues”.

The Pentagon claimed late last month that there had been no progress either in contacts or in possible negotiations with North Korea about the soldier, and that he did not know what condition he was in.

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King, 23, crossed the border north after having spent 48 days in a penitentiary workshop of South Korea because it failed to pay a fine it was given in February for kicking and damaging a police car in Seoul.

As a disciplinary measure, Washington decided to repatriate him, but King fled from Incheon International Airportwhich serves Seoul, where he was to catch a flight back to the United States, and the next day he booked a JSA sightseeing tour that he took advantage of to cross into North Korea.