US soldier who defected to North Korea pictured as mum shocked he’d do ‘anything like that’
The US Army soldier who fled across the border in to North Korea on Tuesday was identified as a 23-year old private with a history of assault and disciplinary action.
Travis King, a private second-class in the First Armored Division, was identified as the soldier who made a daring unauthorized border crossing into the totalitarian country.
An army spokesperson confirmed he was a cavalry scout who had enlisted in the armed forces in January 2021. He has never been deployed, and it is unclear how long he has been stationed overseas.
King, originally from Racine, Wisconsin, was scheduled to return to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas on Tuesday.
Instead, he joined a tour group visiting the town of Panmunjom, a town within the Korean Demilitarized Zone where peace talks were once held.
Once he was within the DMZ, King fled on foot over the border into North Korea, becoming the first US soldier to defect to the country since 1982.
His mother, Claudine Gates, told ABC News she had no reason to suspect King would defect to North Korea.
‘I can’t see Travis doing anything like that,’ she said.
But before his dramatic escape to North Korea, King faced fines, jail time, and disciplinary action for multiple instances of assault in South Korea.
King was first arrested by South Korean policein September 2022 for punching a man in the face at a Seoul nightclub. The case was eventually dropped when the victim declined to press charges.
Just two weeks later on October 8, King was arrested for assault again after he repeatedly punched a man at a nightclub in Seoul’s Mapo District.
He was detained by local police, but displayed ‘aggressive behavior’ when they tried to question him about the incident.
According to Korean court documents, King then began to yell expletives and use offensive language against Koreans, the Korean army, and the Korean police.
The damage to the patrol car was determined to be about 583,959 Korean won – about $460.
King was eventually ordered by the court to pay a fine of 5million won, or $3945.
Anonymous army sources told Reuters that King was due to face disciplinary action after returning to the United States.
An army spokesperson confirmed that King already faced disciplinary action in Korea, and was detained for about 50 days in Pyeongtaek by military police.
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