24 Hours After Defection or Detainment U.S. Soldier Travis King in North Korea, Days Before 70th years Armistice Agreement

9.22am Seoul July 19 / 8.22pm DC July 18 / 5.22pm Reno Nevada July 18 (original start writing)

Update:

8.16am Seoul July 20 / 7.16pm DC July 19 / 4.16pm Reno Nevada July 19 (around 48 hours after incident/defection)

Private Travis King, the U.S. Army soldier who crossed into North Korea on Tuesday, booked a tour of the demilitarized zone through a private company whose manifest was submitted to United Nations Command and approved prior to his dash across the border, according to internal U.S. Army documents. 

The documents, known officially as a "serious incident report" in the Defense Department, provide the most complete picture yet of the events leading up to King's “willfully and without authorization” crossing into North Korean territory as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin put it on Tuesday. 

On Wednesday morning, the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission was set to call North Korea’s army to request access to King, according to the documents. The Messenger was unable to determine if the U.S. made the call or if the U.S. was allowed to speak with King.

No reply was returned from U.S. Forces Korea when contacted for this story. The Pentagon referred The Messenger to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s previous statements. 

The Army documents detail how the junior enlisted soldier was on an international hold in Korea for three disciplinary incidents that occurred between September and October 2022. In both months, King was accused of assault. 

“[King] was placed in pretrial confinement and then a Korean [Status of Forces Agreement] confinement facility. King served 50 days of hard labor at a Korean facility before his release on 10 JUL 2023,” the report states. 

In May, King had booked two different tours of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. This was prior to his 50-day detention. He missed the first date, but was able to confirm his reservation for the second one shortly after he was released from confinement. The tour was booked with a private company, Hana Tours ITC, according to the report. 

The Army report said tours of the demilitarized zone could be booked through the United Service Organization or the U.S. Army's Morale, Welfare and Recreation program.

King was released from South Korean detention on July 10 and returned to the U.S. military. He was booked on a one-way flight to return to the United States on July 17.

U.S. and Korean military escorts accompanied him to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport and observed him going through customs around 4:30 p.m. local time. King then texted his U.S. escort, an Army staff sergeant, to say he had arrived at his departure gate, according to the report. King was supposed to board American Airlines flight 280 to Fort Bliss, Texas, which was scheduled to depart at 5:40 p.m. local time in Korea. 

At noon on July 18, Army soldiers at Fort Bliss in Texas notified King’s chain of command in Korea that he had not arrived and was not responding to any texts or phone calls. The report does not state how he managed to leave the airport. 

U.S. Army leaders in Korea contacted South Korean customs through official channels and verified King did not take the flight. 

When King arrived for his tour of the demilitarized zone the following day, he checked in with a U.S. government identification card. The tour company submitted the list of participants in the tour to the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission, the international body which supervises the armistice between the two Koreas. King had been placed on an international hold by U.S. and South Korean authorities owing to his disciplinary exhibits, and it’s not clear why he was not flagged prior to taking the tour. 

United Nations Command approved the manifest submitted to them by Hana Tours ITC.

The tour began around 2:30 p.m. at Camp Boniface, a military post of the United Nations Command, just south of the southern boundary of the Korean Demilitarized Zone, the report details. Roughly an hour later at 3:30 p.m., King walked away from his group and sprinted through a space between U.S. and South Korean troops. 

Security Forces chased King as he ran to the far end of what’s known as conference row, the bright blue buildings in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. The Army private then ran north to Panmungak. 

The report says King ran to the back of a Korean People’s Army building where he entered a van and was driven out of the area by North Korean troops. 

United Nations Command canceled all tours indefinitely after the incident and the joint security area around the demilitarized zone returned to normal operations later that evening, according to the Army report. 

A U.S. military official familiar with the investigation told The Messenger the U.S. military is looking into the possibility that the North Koreans had prior knowledge of his intention to cross the border. The U.S. military official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss ongoing investigations. 

The report also reveals that the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division has began an investigation. The United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission also launched a “special investigations team” to assess if possible armistice agreement violation occurred. 

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Arguably, until 23-24 hours (*the incident surely already happened around 8 - 9am Seoul / Pyongyang time July 18, or around 7-8pm DC July 17), still unclear (true or not real name) who U.S. citizenship defect to the North Korean, what his (99% is men, U.S. military) motive, how, and a lot of questions. What happens next with the American who ran into North Korea yesterday? To be honest, if he’s just a wanted potential prisoner, they probably expel him quickly. IMHO North Korea is too proud these days to take Americans long-term -- unless they are a major intel asset. Nort Korra may seize upon this incident as “an opportunity to open a direct line of communication with the White House. We’ve seen signs the Kim Jong-un regime could be ready to engage in dialogue. How it responds to this incident will reveal its true intentions.”

Both Koreas seem moving in the direction of regarding one another as foreign countries, not part of a divided nation. But South Korea is subtly implying that when the North verges on collapse, it will be ready to pick up the pieces - or maybe just the good pieces it wants.

The South Korean press (lower) reports that an American has "defected" to North Korea. The US press (upper) reports that an American has "crossed" the border and is "being held" by North Korea. Miles of difference between the two. 

This year is also the 70th Korean Armistice Agreement. The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953, and was designed to "ensure a complete cessation of hostilities and of all acts of armed force in Korea until a final peaceful settlement is achieved. The son of a former South Korean foreign minister who fled to North Korea in the 1980s defected July 2019 (4 years ago), the North said. It is highly unusual for South Koreans to defect to the North or enter the country illegally. September 2020, a South Korean government official apparently trying to defect to North Korea was shot and killed by troops in the North who set his body on fire for fear he might be carrying the coronavirus, South Korean officials said.

According to some news (and even still unconfirmed its real name or not) Private Second-Class (E-2) with the U.S. Army, Travis King crossed the Demarcation Line between North and South Korea earlier today and was immediately taken into Custody by North Korean Border Guards; U.N. and U.S. Command is currently attempting to Negotiate his Release. PV2 Travis King, 23 years old, is a cavalry scout who joined the service in January 2021. He was in Korea as part of the 1st Armored Division. The Soldier was on a Tour in the Panmunjom Province along the Border today near the Joint-Security Area (JSA) when he reported Crossed the Border where he was subsequently arrested, U.S. Defense Officials are unsure of his reasons, but the Situation is under Investigation. At the time of his rotation in Korea he was assigned to 6th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division. The US defector got all the way into the departure gates at Incheon airport before ditching his escorts and taking off for the DMZ.

2 Hours ago (or around 20-21 hours after the defect incident) North Korea fired two ballistic missiles, Japan says. The road-mobile launcher and missile appear unchanged from the previous flight, also a success, on April 13. Pyongyang suggested the lofted-trajectory flight, much longer in duration and higher in apogee than that in April, demonstrated the HS-18’s maximum range capability—on the order of 15,000 kilometers (km) if flown on an operational trajectory, easily enough to reach anywhere in the continental United States. This latest achievement shows that the HS-18 is nearing operational deployment, which, given the North’s past patterns of development, could be announced soon or perhaps after one or two more tests. When it is deployed, the HS-18 will add incrementally to the existing, ongoing deployments of HS-15 and -17 liquid propellant ICBMs. Although it will be somewhat more survivable in the field than the already-survivable road-mobile liquid ICBMs, the HS-18 will not be a “game-changer” and will not substantially boost the North’s ongoing ICBM threat to the US.

Back to defection or detainment. During the tour, the soldier broke away from the group and ran into North Korea, according to a U.S. official familiar with the situation who was not authorized to speak on the record. The tour guides chased after him, but did not catch him, the official said, and he was seen being taken into custody by North Korean soldiers.

The soldier “willfully and without authorization crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” said Col. Isaac Taylor, a public affairs officer for the U.S. Forces Korea. “We believe he is currently in D.P.R.K. custody and are working with our K.P.A. counterparts to resolve this incident.”

The United States and North Korea have no formal diplomatic relations, and U.S. interests in the country are formally represented by the Swedish Embassy there.

6 days ago in Helsinki Finland, Biden has said he is serious about pursuing a prisoner exchange for the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia for more than 100 days, and claimed the process was “under way”.

“I’m serious on a prisoner exchange,” Biden told reporters on Thursday when asked about Gershkovich’s continued detention in Russia.

“And I’m serious about doing all we can to free Americans being illegally held in Russia, or anywhere else for that matter, and that process is underway,” Biden, who was completing a four-day visit to Europe during which he visited the UK, Lithuania and Finland, added.

The Kremlin last week suggested it could be open to a possible prisoner exchange involving Gershkovich, but reaffirmed that such talks must be held away from the public eye.

You only need look at Kim Yo Jong's statement from earlier this week to get a sense for how disinterested they appear to be in dialogue with the U.S. Further, there's a quite consistent track record of sending Americans back who do stuff like this. U.S. national who swam into NK in 2015, detained for nine weeks. Matthew Miller, held for 210 days after ripping up visa in Pyongyang airport. Greencarder Jon Won-moon, who illegally crossed from China, repatriated after five months in 2015. American Bruce Byron Lowrance, returned after just two days, in 2018. sad case of Otto Warmbier, who died in the U.S. after sustaining serious injuries in DPRK during his detention. However, I very much doubt we'll see events like that again in this new case.

The American-led United Nations Command first confirmed the border crossing Tuesday.

Before the defection, or, "detainment," at the DMZ. The US deputy commander in Seoul, Kurt Michael Campbell to talk about how the US will send nuclear subs to the ROK but will definitely control the nuclear arsenal, thank you. Big story in South Korea, nothing-burger in the US. Kurt Michael Campbell, Biden's "Asia Czar”, has the same job he had for Obama, where he invented the term "Asia Pivot." He supervised a disastrous policy course in Korea that almost led to war and would have if Hillary Clinton had won in 2016.

Both the U.N. Command and the North Korean People’s Army keep duty officers at Panmunjom, the sole point of contact on the 155-mile-long Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas.

The U.N. Command allows tour groups in the Joint Security Area, which was created as part of the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War 70 years ago next week. Tourists can visit the area from South Korea while unarmed soldiers trail closely behind.

The soldier detained on Tuesday was the first known American held in North Korean custody since​ Bruce Byron Lowrance​ was detained for a month after illegally entering the country from China in 2018.​

The American student Otto F. Warmbier was arrested in Pyongyang in 2016, accused of trying to steal a propaganda poster from the wall of his hotel. Mr. Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years in prison. After being held for 17 months in North Korea, Mr. Warmbier, then 20, was flown from Pyongyang to Ohio, his home state, in a coma in June 2017. He died a week later.

​Although the inter-Korean border is strewn with land mines and guarded by layers of tall barbed-wire fences, people from both Koreas have crossed the DMZ, as have several American soldiers stationed in the South.

In 2014, an unidentified American was detained on a riverbank near the South’s western border with North Korea after trying to swim into the North. After he was apprehended, he told South Korean officials that he had intended to go to North Korea to meet its leader, Kim Jong-un. Before he entered North Korea from China, Mr. Lowrance was also detained by South Korean soldiers while approaching the inter-Korean border.

But defections through Panmunjom are highly unusual.

A South Korean soldier assigned to the Joint Security Area defected to the North in 1991. In 2017, a North Korean soldier​ ran across ​Panmunjom through a hail of bullets ​from fellow Communist soldiers trying to stop him. The defector survived multiple bullet wounds.

Relations between North Korea and the United States have deteriorated in recent years as the North has ramped up its nuclear and missile programs, defying international sanctions.

The fate of American citizens held in North Korea is not always clear. Some are voluntarily released, while others have faced criminal charges of committing “hostile acts” and​ have been freed only when American officials, like former President Bill Clinton, have visited Pyongyang to request their release.

North Korea released three American detainees in ​2018 after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Pyongyang to pick them up. North Korea treated their release as a sign of good will and a merciful diplomatic gesture aimed at facilitating ​Mr. Kim’s summit meeting with President Donald J. Trump in Singapore ​later that year.

Panmunjom has long been a popular tourist destination for foreign visitors in South Korea. It is the only place inside the 2.5-mile-wide DMZ where tourists are allowed. It is also the only place where outsiders can sometimes watch North Korean soldiers at close hand.

On a typical tour, visitors are escorted into the Joint Security Area by South Korean and U.S. soldiers wearing U.N. arm bands. They look at the Bridge of No Return, where Korean prisoner of war exchanges took place in 1953. They also visit a monument to a South Korean soldier who was shot dead during a gunfight triggered by a Soviet citizen’s defection to the West through Panmunjom in 1984.

At Panmunjom, no wall or fence separates the two Koreas. Only a low-rising cement slab barely a half-foot tall marks the official demarcation line. But no visitors from either side are allowed to step over the line, as President Trump did when he met Mr. Kim in 2019. A highlight of the tour comes when visitors are escorted into a blue joint conference room and are allowed to walk into the North Korean half.

North Korean soldiers watch the visitors from the South carefully, sometimes staring into the joint conference room. But since the pandemic, they have avoided coming closer to outside visitors.

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