2023-08-07 18:20:17
► Why did American soldier Travis King cross the North Korean border on July 18?
A volunteer in the US Army since 2021, Private Travis King, 23, was assigned to the US First Armored Division deployed to South Korea. Visibly turbulent and resistant to military discipline, he was convicted in February of damaging a police car in Seoul. He then served two months in prison for assaulting a South Korean at a club near Seoul’s bustling Hongdae district. Just released from prison on July 10, he had been escorted to the airport to return to the United States for a disciplinary hearing.
But instead of heading to Fort Bliss in Texas, near the Mexican border, for disciplinary hearings, Travis King slipped away and signed up for a tour group to visit the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas, under the supervision of the United Nations. On the day of the visit, July 18, he escaped the group’s surveillance and crossed the border of the Joint Security Area (JSA) on foot. At this stage, it is not a question of a defection with ideological motivations, but more surely of a desire to escape American military justice.
► What do we know about the current fate reserved for Travis King by the North Korean authorities?
“Travis King has committed a totally irresponsible act. He didn’t realize for a second the seriousness of his gesture by entering North Korea as an American soldier. immediately assures Juliette Morillot, a Koreanologist who has visited North Korea several times (1). “At first, he will not escape several weeks of very thorough interrogations by the North Korean security services. I don’t think he will be tortured, but they will exhaust him psychologically by making him repeat a hundred times his name, his address, his life, his military commitment, what he saw on his military base in the South… during the less than thirteen hours a day. » Even if he is not ranked, his military status makes him a special prisoner. According to this specialist, he must be detained, isolated, near the Demilitarized Zone, “not necessarily brought to Pyongyang”, in a hotel of the State. But he will certainly have to prepare to stay there for many months.
► In the very tense context between Washington and Pyongyang, what are the chances of a quick release?
“Washington will do everything to bring it back to the United States, provided that the price asked by Pyongyang is not too high”, explains Robert Dujarric, co-director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University in Tokyo. In the meantime, the steps to obtain his release are likely to be long and tedious. Pyongyang only “responded” on August 3 to requests from the United Nations Command, led by the United States, sent the day after Travis King illegally entered North Korea. “In order not to interfere with efforts to bring him home, we will not go into details at this time,” the UN said.
Still, Private Travis crossed the border illegally, for which he risks several years in prison. An amicable settlement will only be possible much later. “Even if Travis King has little value, Pyongyang can use him as a bargaining chip,” analyzes Robert Dujarric. For the specialist, the American soldier “would have done better to return to the United States, where he did not risk a heavy sentence, because he was free in South Korea”. Today, he is a prisoner of North Korea…
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