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North Korea has claimed that a US soldier who crossed over the border into its territory a month ago was escaping “inhumane abuse and racism in the US military”.
Private Travis King’s sudden dash in July during a guided tour of the unfortified “joint security area” dividing South Korea and North Korea sparked intense international speculation about the motivations of the 23-year-old serviceman from Wisconsin.
The US government confirmed this month that the North Korean regime had received communications about the soldier, but until this week Pyongyang had not commented publicly on the case.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency published a statement on Wednesday that said King had “confessed to wanting to cross” into North Korea because of “inequality in US society”.
The KCNA added King had admitted to illegally crossing the inter-Korean border but claimed he was seeking asylum in North Korea or a third country. “The investigation continues into his case,” it said.
US officials said they had not received any information about King’s health or how he has been treated.
“We can’t verify these alleged comments,” a US defence official said. “We remain focused on his safe return. The department’s priority is to bring Private King home, and we are working through all available channels to achieve that outcome.”
The day before King crossed into North Korea, he had been due to fly to Dallas for military disciplinary proceedings. He had previously been held in South Korean custody for assault and criminal damage.
The private’s uncle, Myron Gates, told ABC News this month that King, who is black, had described experiencing racism during his deployment.
“I was like, ‘Are you OK?’, and he’s telling me, ‘No, they’re trying to kill me’,” Gates said. “He was saying things like . . . they’re racist. It made it seem like something was going on with him.”
Analysts noted that Pyongyang’s statement about King’s case was released a day before the UN Security Council was due to hold its first session to discuss North Korean human rights abuses since 2017.
Thursday’s meeting in New York, which is opposed by China and has been denounced by North Korea as a “violent infringement upon its dignity and sovereignty”, was requested by the US along with Japan, South Korea and Albania.
“The Council must address the horrors, the abuses, and crimes being perpetrated daily by the Kim regime against its own citizens — and people from other Member States, including Japan and Republic of Korea,” the four countries said in a joint statement last week.
Andrei Lankov, an expert on North Korea at Kookmin University in Seoul, said King was a “useful propaganda pawn” against the west for Kim Jong Un’s regime.
King “will be presented as living proof that western societies are non-democratic, racist and repressive”, said Lankov, adding that the soldier’s exploitation in this way augured badly for the chances of his return.
“In most cases, defectors to dictatorships like North Korea very soon become very bitterly disappointed and, if released, would say a great deal of highly unwelcome things from the regime’s perspective,” said Lankov.
“They might continue to use him as proof of North Korea’s superiority, without ever showing him to the public or allowing him to go back.”
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