According to his attorney, US soldier Travis King who ran from South Korea to North Korea before being returned to the United States is expected to plead guilty to desertion charges and others. The Army indicted King on 14 counts over his July 2023 illegal crossing.
He will plead guilty to five counts, including desertion and assault, under a plea bargain. “He will plead not guilty to the other offenses, which the Army will dismiss and dismiss,” his attorney, Franklin Rosenblatt, said in a statement.
US Soldier Who Escaped to North Korea to Enter Plea on Desertion Charge
King’s plea and sentencing hearing is scheduled for September 20 at Fort Bliss, Texas. “Travis’s plea will be accepted at a general court-martial,” Rosenblatt stated in an email Monday. During the hearing, King will testify to explain himself, respond to questions from the military judge and wait for his sentence. Rosenblatt said King was appreciative of the support from his family and friends and other people not to “pre-judge him” based on the allegations made against him. Among charges he is likely to have dropped in the plea bargain are possession of child pornography.
His ramble into North Korea came just days after his release from a South Korean jail, where he had been held for almost two months on charges of assault.
Military officers took him to the airport about a week after he got out of prison, intending to fly him back to Fort Bliss so that he could take disciplinary action there. They accompanied him to the customs, but rather than board a flight, he was taken off on a civilian tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom. He sprinted across the border, a place often marked with guards, but crowded these days by tourists.
He enlisted in the Army in January 2021 and at the time was stationed in South Korea for a unit rotation when he crossed into North Korea. Earlier, he served two months of detention in South Korea after getting charged with assaulting two people and kicking a police car.
He was held by North Korea, but Pyongyang abruptly announced about two months later that it would repatriate him. He was flown back to Texas on Sept. 28, and has been in custody there.
The plea bargain, reached after months of legal back-and-forth, will be filed in a military court later this week. Sources with knowledge of the case say that King will plead guilty to leaving without authority and to seeking asylum in North Korea, one of the world’s most secret regimes.
Desertion is a serious offense by military law. King will most likely face a long sentence, but the specifics depend on the final terms of the plea bargain. The case has gained a lot of attention in both the US and internationally as people keep following the development.
North Korea to Plead Guilty
The case of King is a vivid example of the complexity and danger of military service, especially in unstable areas. In the course of the case, it will be quite interesting to see how this is going to affect King in the future and what can be learned from this unusual episode. The military and diplomatic communities are now all focused on the implications of King’s plea and what this might mean for broader U.S.-North Korea relations.
The U.S. military in October filed a series of charges against King under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including desertion, as well as kicking and punching other officers, unlawfully possessing alcohol, making a false statement and possessing a video of a child engaged in sexual activity. Those allegations date back to July 10, the same day he was released from the prison.
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