US Army worried about how North Korea will treat soldier who ran across border

WASHINGTON – The US Army on Thursday expressed deep concern for how North Korea might treat Private Travis King and said Washington was fully mobilised in its efforts to reach out to Pyongyang, including by using United Nations communications channels.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, in her first public comments on the case, said it remained unclear why King ran across the border into North Korea but acknowledged he was likely concerned about facing further disciplinary action from the Army upon his return home to the United States.

She said she was not aware of any information demonstrating the 23-year-old was a North Korea sympathiser.

“I worry about him, frankly,” Ms Wormuth told the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, citing the case of Otto Warmbier, a US college student who was imprisoned in North Korea for 17 months before dying in 2017 shortly after he was returned to the United States in a coma.

“I worry about how they may treat him. So, (we) want to get him back.”

North Korea has remained silent about Private King and US officials say Pyongyang has not responded to communication from the American military about the soldier.

North Korea’s state media, which has in the past reported on the detention of US nationals, has not commented on the incident so far.

Speaking in Japan, US special envoy for North Korea Sung Kim said the US was “working very hard” to determine Pte King’s status and well-being and is actively engaged in ensuring his safety and return. Mr Kim did not provide any details.

Pte King was on a civilian tour of the Panmunjom truce village on Tuesday when he dashed across the Military Demarcation Line that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953.

Pte King had been fined for assault while stationed in South Korea and had been detained for more than a month before being escorted to Incheon International Airport by the US military for a commercial flight to Dallas, Texas, according to US officials.

Once past security checks, he told airline staff at the departure gate he had lost his passport and returned to the terminal, the airport official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Ms Wormuth said Pte King “may not have been thinking clearly, frankly.”

“He had assaulted an individual in South Korea and had been in custody of the South Korean government and was going to come back to the United States and face the consequences in the Army,” she said. “I’m sure that he was grappling with that.”