U.S. soldier who crossed into North Korea charged with desertion
The Army has charged the U.S. soldier who crossed into North Korea in July with desertion, among other alleged offenses, and placed him in pretrial confinement at Fort Bliss, Tex., according to new charging documents.
Pvt. Travis King was expelled by Pyongyang in September after state media said he had admitted he illegally entered the country from its border with South Korea. Within hours, King was placed in U.S. custody, and a senior U.S. administration official said he “was very happy to be on his way home.”
King, a 23-year-old cavalry scout, was charged Thursday with violating the U.S. military’s legal code governing desertion, assault and disobeying superiors. He was also charged with insubordinate conduct, making false statements and attempting to solicit sexual photographs of a minor over social media. King’s brigade commander, Col. Kirby R. Dennis, signed the charge sheets obtained by The Washington Post.
King’s mother, Claudine Gates, said she was worried about her son’s mental health and stressed that he is presumed innocent.
“The man I raised, the man I dropped off at boot camp, the man who spent the holidays with me before deploying did not drink,” Gates wrote in a statement. “A mother knows her son, and I believe something happened to mine while he was deployed. The Army promised to investigate what happened at Camp Humphries, and I await the results.”
In August, North Korea claimed King told investigators he was disillusioned by American inequality and fled his post in South Korea because of his “ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination.” The U.S. Defense Department said it could not verify North Korea’s comments on King.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... n-soldier/
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