A young US soldier named Travis King, who ran away from South Korea to North Korea and was brought back to the United States last month, is now dealing with some serious legal problems.
He’s being accused of desertion, as well as soliciting and having inappropriate pictures of a child.
He’s also facing charges for assaulting fellow soldiers.
This 23-year-old soldier, who specializes in reconnaissance, illegally crossed into North Korea in July while he was on a guided tour near the border.
North Korea eventually let him go but didn’t provide many details about the incident.
While the charges against Travis King haven’t been officially announced yet, it seems like he might be facing a total of eight charges.
According to the Reuters news agency, which was the first to report this story, the most serious of these charges is desertion, which alone could lead to him being put in jail.
Before he fled to North Korea, Pvt King was also accused of misbehaving in various ways, including trying to escape from US military custody in October 2022, according to Reuters news agency.
In July 2023, he was accused of encouraging someone on Snapchat to create child pornography, and he was also charged with having child pornography.
Travis King’s mother, Claudine Gates, is asking that her son be given the benefit of the doubt and considered innocent until proven guilty.
Before his journey to North Korea, Pvt King was serving with the US Army, and he crossed the North Korean border while he was on duty.
He had been in the Army since January 2021 and was stationed in South Korea as part of a rotation.
It’s worth noting that before his escape to North Korea, Pvt King had spent two months in detention in South Korea for assaulting two people and damaging a police car.
He was released from custody on July 10th, just eight days before he crossed into North Korea.
The arrangement for his release was made by Swedish officials, who brought him to North Korea’s border with China.
We still don’t have a lot of information about what happened to Travis King while he was in North Korea, why he decided to flee there in the first place, and why North Korea chose to let him go.
