Travis King (then a private) of the U.S. Army stationed in Korea, who defected to North Korea through Panmunjom last July and was later repatriated and indicted, plans to plead guilty to desertion and other charges.
According to The Hill, a U.S. congressional media outlet, and CNN on the 26th (local time), King’s attorney Franklin Rosenblatt announced that King, who was indicted on 14 charges, will plead guilty to five charges, including desertion, at the trial to be held at the Fort Bliss Military Court in Texas on the 20th of next month.
Rosenblatt said that if King admits to these five charges, military prosecutors will drop the charges against him for nine other charges, including possession of child sexual exploitation material.
He added, “King is grateful to his friends and family who supported him, and to those around him who did not make hasty judgments based on the initial allegations.”
King was deported 71 days after he crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) without permission while touring the Joint Security Area (JSA) on July 18 last year.
He was later extradited to the United States and charged with desertion and possession of child pornography.
He was also fined 5 million won in February of last year for kicking and damaging the door of a police patrol car in Mapo-gu, Seoul in October 2022.
He was also indicted on charges of assaulting a Korean in September 2022, but the victim stated that he did not want to be punished.
He did not pay the fine and was released in July of that year after serving 48 days of hard labor in the country starting in May of last year.
He was later scheduled to be sent to his home base, Fort Bliss, for further disciplinary action, but he escaped from Incheon International Airport without boarding a plane and defected to North Korea the next day while touring the Joint Security Area.
(Seoul = News 1)
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2024-08-27 04:11:30