The U.S. Soldier Who Fled To The DPRK Might Say He Wants To Play Basketball - Foreign Affairs - Nairaland
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| The U.S. Soldier Who Fled To The DPRK Might Say He Wants To Play Basketball by panafrican(m): 1:58pm On Jul 20, 2023 |
The 23-yea r old U.S. soldier who fled to North Korea might later say " I want to stay here and play basketball on the North Korean team ". 
A US soldier who crossed into North Korea while on a tour group after escaping military detention was laughing as he fled over the inter-Korean border, according to media reports.
US and Korean officials identified the soldier as Private 2nd Class Travis King, according to CBS News. King, 23, was being held in custody by South Korea at the airport in Incheon, near Seoul, and in the process of being expelled when he fled.
After passing through airport security, he unexpectedly joined a tour group to the Korean border village of Panmunjom, a popular tourist spot inside the 248km-long (154-mile) demilitarized zone, or DMZ.
A member of the tour later told CBS News that King, who was reported to be in civilian clothes, gave “out a loud ‘ha ha ha’ and just runs in between some buildings”.
Pentagon officials said that UN Command security forces who had been escorting the tour group chased King, who is from Racine, Wisconsin, but could not catch him.
Adm John Aquilino, the head of US Indo-Pacific Command, confirmed that an army private “made a run across the demilitarized zone in the Joint Security Area. He was picked up by the North Koreans,” according to NBC News.
The US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said during a news conference on Tuesday that King had entered North Korea “intentionally and without authorisation”.
“There’s a lot that that we’re still trying to learn, but what we do know is that one of our service members who was on a tour willfully and without authorisation crossed the military demarcation line,” Austin told Pentagon reporters. Austin said King was probably now in North Korean custody.
A US state department spokesperson said that the department “has not reached out to the North Koreans or other governments” on the matter.
Adam Smith, a senior Democrat on the House armed services committee, told CNN that North Korea’s detention of a US soldier posed a serious diplomatic problem since the US and North Korea do not maintain diplomatic relations.
Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/19/us-soldier-north-korea-border-travis-king
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| Re: The U.S. Soldier Who Fled To The DPRK Might Say He Wants To Play Basketball by TemplarLandry: 2:04pm On Jul 20, 2023 |
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| Re: The U.S. Soldier Who Fled To The DPRK Might Say He Wants To Play Basketball by OperationalVehi: 2:14pm On Jul 20, 2023 |
For some reasons I think the guy took an uncommon risk. What he did was deliberate |
