U.S. Soldier Who Ran Across North Korean Border To Plead Guilty To Desertion: Lawyer

Travis King, the U.S. Army private who dashed across the North Korean border last year, will plead guilty to desertion and four other charges, his lawyer said Monday. If the plea deal is accepted, nine separate charges against King, including possession of child pornography, will be dropped, The Associated Press reported.

King, 23, ran into North Korea in July 2023 after he was released from a South Korean prison where he spent two months on assault charges. As officers were taking King back to the U.S. to face disciplinary action, the soldier joined a civilian tour group and ran across the heavily guarded North Korean border. He remained in North Korean custody for two months before he was returned to the U.S. to face numerous charges, including allegations that he solicited a Snapchat user to “knowingly and willingly produce child pornography.”

King’s lawyer Franklin D. Rosenblatt told the AP that the soldier “wants to take responsibility for the things that he did.”

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“Travis is grateful to his friends and family who have supported him, and to all outside his circle who did not pre-judge his case based on the initial allegations,” Rosenblatt added.

The private is also accused of assaulting officers, illegally possessing alcohol, and making a false statement. King will have the opportunity to speak at a hearing at Fort Bliss, Texas, on September 20.

“If Pvt. King’s guilty plea is accepted, the judge will sentence King pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement,” a spokeswoman for the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel said in a statement, according to The Washington Post. “If the judge does not accept the guilty plea, the judge can rule that the case be litigated in a contested court-martial.”

North Korea claimed that King said he crossed the border because he “harbored ill feelings against inhuman mistreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army” and “was disillusioned at the unequal American society.” The Pentagon could not verify that King made these statements to the North Koreans, and North Korea regularly releases completely false statements that attempt to paint the U.S. as an evil empire.

King was the first American soldier to voluntarily cross into North Korea since 1982. American civilian Otto Warmbier was detained and imprisoned by the communist country in 2016 on phony charges of subversion before he was released 17 months later in a coma; he died shortly after coming home to the U.S.