U.S. soldier who entered North Korea walks free after guilty plea

A U.S. soldier who crossed into North Korea last year pleaded guilty to desertion as part of a plea agreement Friday and was sentenced to 12 months of confinement, his lawyer said.

Because of good behavior and time served, the soldier was released, according to the lawyer.

Travis King was facing 14 charges related to him fleeing across the border from South Korea into the North in July 2023 while on a sightseeing tour of the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean Peninsula, and prior incidents.

But he pleaded guilty to just five -- desertion, assault on a noncommissioned officer, and three counts of disobeying an officer -- as part of a deal that was accepted on Friday by a military judge.

"The judge, under the terms of the plea deal, sentenced Travis to one year of confinement, reduction in rank to private (E-1), forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and a dishonorable discharge," a statement from King's attorney Franklin Rosenblatt said.

"With time already served and credit for good behavior, Travis is now free and will return home," the statement said.

"Travis King has faced significant challenges throughout his life, including a difficult upbringing, exposure to criminal environments, and struggles with mental health," Rosenblatt said. "All these factors have compounded the hardships he faced in the military."

In a statement, the US Army's Office of Special Trial Counsel confirmed King's guilty plea as part of a deal and said that "pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement, all other charges and specifications were dismissed."

"The outcome of today's court martial is a fair and just result that reflects the seriousness of the offenses committed by Pvt. King," prosecutor Major Allyson Montgomery said in the statement.

At the time of the incident, King had been stationed in South Korea, and after a drunken bar fight and a stay in South Korean jail, he was supposed to fly back to Texas to face disciplinary hearings.

Instead of doing so, he walked out of the Seoul-area airport, joined a DMZ sightseeing trip and slipped over the fortified border where he was detained by the communist North's authorities.

Pyongyang had said that King had defected to North Korea to escape "mistreatment and racial discrimination in the U.S. Army."

But after completing its investigation, North Korea "decided to expel" King in September for illegally intruding into its territory.

(AFP)