(BBC News) North Korea has said U.S. soldier Travis King crossed into its territory last month because of “inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination” in the army.
The 23-year-old private dashed across the border from South Korea on July 18 while on a guided tour.
Private 2nd Class (PV2) King “expressed his willingness to seek refuge” in the North, the country’s state media said.
The claims, which are the North’s first public comments on the case, could not be verified independently.
U.S. officials said earlier they believed the soldier had crossed the border intentionally.
King is a reconnaissance specialist who has been in the army since January 2021 and was in South Korea as part of his rotation.
Before crossing the border, he served two months in detention in South Korea for assault charges and was released on July 10.
He was supposed to fly back to the U.S. to face disciplinary proceedings but managed to leave the airport and join a tour of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which separates North and South Korea.
“During the investigation, Travis King confessed that he had decided to come over to the DPRK [North Korea] as he harboured ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army,” North Korean state news agency KCNA said.
“He also expressed his willingness to seek refugee in the DPRK or a third country, saying that he was disillusioned at the unequal American society.”
The DMZ separates the two Koreas and is one of the most heavily fortified areas in the world.
It is filled with landmines, surrounded by electric and barbed wire fencing, and monitored by surveillance cameras. Armed guards are supposed to be on alert 24 hours a day.
