A US soldier who fled into North Korea last year was sentenced to 12 months of confinement after pleading guilty to desertion as part of a plea agreement, his lawyer has said.
However, because of good behaviour and time served, the soldier was released, the lawyer, Franklin Rosenblatt, said on Friday.
Travis King was facing 14 charges related to him fleeing across the border from South Korea into the North in July last year while on a sightseeing tour of the Demilitarised Zone, DMZ, that divides the Korean Peninsula, and prior incidents.
He pleaded guilty to five charges – 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.
In July 2023, King had been stationed in South Korea and was supposed to fly back to Texas to face disciplinary hearings after a drunken bar fight and a stay in a South Korean jail.
Instead, 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 King had defected to North Korea to escape “mistreatment and racial discrimination in the US Army”.
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But after completing its investigation, North Korea “decided to expel” King in September for illegally intruding into its territory.
Lawyer Rosenblatt said in Friday’s statement: “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 dishonourable discharge.
“With time already served and credit for good behaviour, 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 offences committed by Pvt King,” prosecutor Major Allyson Montgomery said in the statement.
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