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US soldier Travis King, who was arrested in North Korea after fleeing across the border, had been accused of punching a man in a nightclub and kicking a police car door, it has been claimed.
A diplomatic nightmare has erupted after Private 2nd Class King, 23, was arrested on Tuesday, with US authorities stating he crossed the border “wilfully, of his own volition”.
Previously, he had been in prison for assault in Seoul, South Korea, and was set to fly back to the US for disciplinary reasons.
King was reportedly investigated for assault in September 2022 after being accused of punching a Korean national in a nightclub in the South Korean capital.
He was also fined nearly £3,000 for “repeatedly kicking” the back door of a police car, according to court documents, and also screamed “foul language” at the officers trying to arrest him.
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The US soldier was released on July 10 after serving two months in jail on assault charges, according to officials, who have not released any further details.
On Monday, King was escorted to an airport to be returned to Fort Bliss, Texas but instead left and joined a tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom on Tuesday morning.
He had reportedly already passed through airport security at the airport when he fled.
But at the end of the tour, King suddenly sprinted over the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea, before he was later arrested.
Further details of the stunning incident have come to light, with one Swedish tourist on the tour claiming the solider laughed loudly as he made a dash for the border.
Mikaela Johansson wrote in a Facebook post: “To our right, we hear a loud HA-HA-HA and one guy from OUR GROUP that has been with us all day- runs in between two of the buildings and over to the other side!!” she wrote.
“It took everybody a second to react and grasp what had actually happened, then we were ordered into and through Freedom House and running back to our military bus.”
Another person on the tour group with King thought she was witnessing a “stupid prank or stunt” when she saw him sprinting over the border toward North Korea.
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Sarah Leslie from Wellington, New Zealand, said her tour group visited the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom, allowing tourists to effectively step on North Korean soil inside one of the buildings, which are jointly held.
She added that to be allowed on such a tour, people are required to submit their passports and get permits in advance.
But with the tour coming to an end in the afternoon – and with the group busy taking photos – Leslie suddenly saw King running “really fast”.
The stunned tourist told the Associated Press: “I assumed initially he had a mate filming him in some kind of really stupid prank or stunt, like TikTok, the most stupid thing you could do. But then I heard one of the soldiers shout ‘Get that guy.'”
Leslie said that command was shouted by a US soldier – one of a group that patrols the area along with South Korean troops – but it happened in a flash.
King sprinted 10 meters down a narrow passageway between the two buildings and crossed the border before disappearing from sight, according to Leslie.
She commented: “People couldn’t really quite believe what had happened. Quite a few were really shocked. Once we got on the bus and got out of there we were all kind of staring at each other.”
The lawyer from Wellington, New Zealand, said she found it hard to understand why King would head to North Korea, adding: “I just didn’t think anyone would ever want to do that.”
Following his arrest, the United Nations Command said on Twitter: “A US National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident.”
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin also told a Pentagon press briefing: “We’re very early in this event and so there’s a lot that we’re still trying to learn.
“What we do know is that one of our service members who was on a tour wilfully and without authorization crossed the military demarcation line. We believe that he is in DPRK custody.”
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