Update: The mother of a U.S. Army private who defected to North Korea wants President Biden to bring him home.
Private Travis T. King, 23, dashed across the border into N. Korea on Tuesday (July 18). He defected days after his release from a South Korea prison on July 10.
“I just want my son back. Get my son home. Get my son home, and pray. Pray that he comes back,” Claudine Gates told a reporter outside her home in Wisconsin on Wednesday.
Travis King’s uncle, Myron Gates said King was grieving the loss of his 6-year-old cousin (Gates’s son), who died in February.
“He’s still grieving, and that had a lot to do with what he did,” Gates told NBC News.
“When my son was on life support, and when my son passed away … Travis started [acting] reckless [and] crazy when he knew my son was about to die,” Gates told the Daily Beast. “It seemed like he was breaking down. It affected Travis a lot. Because he couldn’t be here. He was in the Army, overseas.”
Gates added that King struggled with the distance away from home and he was not acting like himself.
King spent 48 days in a South Korea prison for fighting with locals, ABC affiliate WISN reported. He was also investigated last year for punching a Korean national and for property damage.
King was scheduled to return to Fort Bliss, Texas, on Tuesday to face potential discharge from the Army when he left the airport and fled across the border into N. Korea.
U.S. officials are reportedly “working very hard” to get information on King’s status in North Korea.
But North Korea has been silent about King’s defection. North Korea’s state media has not reported on the incident.
Watch the interview below.
Originally published on: July 19, 2023 at 10:59 AM:
A troubled U.S. soldier who defected to North Korea by sprinting across the border was recently released from a prison in South Korea.
U.S. Army soldier Travis King, 23, served nearly two months in a South Korean prison for assault. He was released on July 10 and was scheduled to return to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he faced further disciplinary action.
King was being escorted to the airport when he got away from his escorts.
Officials say King left the airport and blended in with tourists at the border’s demilitarized zone. He then “bolted” between 2 blue buildings and into North Korea, the Defense Department said Tuesday.
A witness said one American soldier shouted “get him,” and other American and South Korean guards ran after King but they were unable to catch him.
King was immediately taken into custody by the North Koreans, according to the Defense Department.
U.S. officials have not yet spoken with North Korean officials about King.
“What we do know is that one of our service members, who was on a tour, willfully and without authorization” crossed the demarcation line, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on Tuesday.
King is the first Black U.S. soldier to defect to North Korea and the second U.S. soldier to defect to N. Korea since 1962.
