Washington DC, US
Reuters
US Army Private Travis King arrived at a US military hospital in Texas on Thursday where he will undergo medical evaluations, including for his mental health, following his expulsion from North Korea a day earlier, the Pentagon said.
King, 23, was held in North Korea for over two months after his surprise dash across the heavily militarized border dividing the Korean peninsula.
US Army soldier Travis King appears in this unknown location, undated photo obtained by Reuters
Details are still scarce about King’s treatment while in North Korean custody and questions remain about why he fled to one of the world’s most reclusive nations.
“He’ll be going through medical screenings, medical evaluations, and then he’ll be meeting with professionals to assess his emotional and mental health,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.
Singh said she could not put a timetable on the evaluation process, but added that he will be going through the reintegration program for the “immediate future.”
A US military flight carrying King landed at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston at about 0530 GMT, officials said. Television footage showed a group of people leaving a plane at the base at that time.
Army spokesperson Bryce Dubee said King was at the base’s Brooke Army Medical Center.
“The Army’s focus right now is on ensuring the soldier’s well-being and privacy,” Dubee added.
Rigorous examination
King was expected to undergo a rigorous examination process at the center, where basketball star Brittney Griner was treated in December after a prisoner swap with Russia ended her 10 months in Russian detention. Given patient privacy concerns, the US military may not make the results of those examinations public.
King ran into North Korea from the South on 18th July while on a civilian tour of the border and was immediately taken into North Korean custody.
It was unclear if King will face disciplinary action by the US Army. It has so far not called him a deserter, even though he crossed the border without authorisation while on active duty, and it has deferred questions about any punishments King might face.
For its part, North Korea appears to have treated his case as one of illegal immigration.
Its KCNA state news agency said King told Pyongyang he entered North Korea illegally because he was “disillusioned about unequal US society”.
The Swedish Government, which represents US interests in North Korea because Washington has no diplomatic presence in the country, retrieved King in North Korea and brought him to China.
The State Department said the US ambassador to Beijing, Nicholas Burns, met King in Dandong, China, a city bordering North Korea. King then flew from there to Shenyang, China, then on to Osan Air Force Base in South Korea, before continuing his voyage back to the United States.
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“Unfit” for propaganda
King, who joined the Army in January, 2021, faced two allegations of assault in South Korea. He pleaded guilty to assault and destroying public property for damaging a police car during a profanity-laced tirade against Koreans, according to court documents. He had been due to face more disciplinary measures in the United States.
Pyongyang appears to have concluded King’s criminal background made him “unfit” for propaganda purposes, said Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
Keeping him longer, Yang said, could have risked another incident like that of Otto Warmbier, a US college student who died shortly after he was returned to the United States from imprisonment in North Korea.
“So they might have just opted to use it as a chance to highlight themselves as a ‘normal state,’ showing that they are no longer using these detainees for political, diplomatic purposes,” Yang said.
Jenny Town, director of the Washington-based North Korea project 38 North, did not see the incident reopening the door to stalled US-North Korea diplomacy aimed at curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programs, although she said it might reflect slightly improving US-China relations, given China’s cooperation in the return.
Even as King was en route home, North Korea said it had adopted a constitutional amendment to enshrine its policy on nuclear force, and its leader Kim Jong Un pledged to accelerate production of nuclear weapons to deter what he called U.S. provocations.
China’s foreign ministry said North Korea and the United States had requested that China provide assistance for King’s return in a humanitarian spirit.
In July, King had finished serving military detention in Korea and was at the airport awaiting US military transport to his home unit in the US. Instead, he left the airport and joined a tour of the border area, where he ran into North Korea despite attempts by South Korean and US guards to stop him.
– With reporting by EVAN GARCIA and SOO HYANG-CHOI in Seoul, South Korea; additional reporting by DAVID BRUNNSTROM
