C.North Korea is “investigating” the US soldier who crossed its border last month, according to state media in Pyongyangwho added that the soldier has requested asylum in the country after feeling mistreated in the United States Army.
«Travis King (name of the American soldier) has confessed that he decided to come to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (official name of the country) because he harbored anger over inhumane treatment and racial discrimination within the United States Army,” he said today in a note the state news agency KCNA.
This is the first confirmation from the regime’s media about the situation of Kingwho crossed last July 18 the Military Demarcation Line and entered North Korean territory while on a sightseeing tour of the Joint Security Zone (JSA) in the heart of the border between the two Koreas.
The border between North Korea and South Korea
PyongyangHowever, he was in contact with USA on the situation of the soldier, who was believed to have been detained by the regime since he crossed the border, according to the Pentagon and the United Nations Command Korea.
Travis King “illegally entered the territory” of North Korea and “came under the control of North Korean soldiers” after having deliberately entered the North Korean zone on the other side of the military demarcation line, according to the KCNA.
The US soldier “expressed his desire to seek asylum” in North Korea “or in a third country”, pointing out his “disillusionment with the inequality in American society”, according to the propaganda medium of Pyongyangwho adds that research on King “keep going”.
The US wants to repatriate him
Washingtonfor his part, pointed out after learning of the announcement by the North Korean media about King that he has not been able to corroborate that information, and stated that he is still working to bring the soldier back to his country.
“The department’s priority is to bring the soldier King back home, and we work through all possible channels to achieve that result,” he told the network. CNN an official of the Defense Department.
A spokesman for King’s family also called on the North Korean authorities to let the young man speak to his mother and treat him humanely.
He Pentagon had stated that it had made no progress either in contacts or in possible negotiations with North Korea about the soldier, and that he did not know what state he was in.
King23, crossed the border north after spending 48 days in a prison workshop South Korea because he did not pay the fine that was imposed on him in February for an incident with the police in seoul.
As a disciplinary measure, Washington decided to repatriate him, but King fled from the international airport of Incheonwhere I had to take a return flight USAand the next day booked a sightseeing tour of the JSA that he took advantage of to cross the North.
A possible bargaining chip
Analysts have pointed out that North Korea could use the soldier with propaganda purposes or as a bargaining chip with Washingtonin the context of bilateral dialogue broken since 2019 and in the midst of an upturn in tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The North “has only revealed part of its investigation” into the alleged defection of King and “without reaching a conclusion,” by which he seems to mean Washington “that he has in his hand the resolution of the question,” he said Yang Moo Jinfrom the University of North Korean Studies in seoulto the news agency yonhap.
The information published by Pyongyang It also arrives a few days before the bilateral summit that will be held in Washington the leaders of Japan, South Korea and USAand in which North Korea It will be one of the central themes.
Next Monday, in addition, the joint annual exercises will begin Ulchi Freedom Shield between South Korea and USAcriticized for Pyongyang for considering them a test invasion of their territory.
