North Korea has decided “to expel” US Army Private Travis King, who crossed into the North from South Korea during a tour of the joint security area in July, state media KCNA reported on Wednesday.
“The relevant organ of the DPRK decided to expel Travis King, a soldier of the U.S. Army who illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK, under the law of the Republic,” KCNA said. The report said the investigation into King “has been finished.”
It is unclear from KCNA’s report where, when and how King would be expelled.
King crossed the military demarcation line from South Korea into North Korea in July during a tour of the Joint Security Area inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ). King, a junior enlisted soldier assigned to US Forces Korea, had faced assault charges in South Korea and was due to return to Fort Bliss, Texas, and be removed from the military just one day before he crossed into North Korea, CNN previously reported.
How problematic of a person do you have to be for North Korea, a nation that likes to keep people, to be like "I think you should leave."
He was escaping assault charges and didn't "defect" for ideological reasons. Norks prolly think they will score more diplomatic points by handing him over back to the US.
I think their hands are kind of tied. He's not a valuable asset, he is a fuckup. He doesn't hold the same value as a random citizen tourist that didn't have the intention of defecting. He's not in a position to provide valuable intel. They either kick him out or treat him like a god and let him go home to tell everyone how awesome North Korea is. Punishing him only hurts their image.
I don't think it would hurt their image at all. They would be well within their rights to imprison him for the crossing. The US would do the same. I think they more want to exemplify US soldiers as incompetent fuckups by using him as an example.
There's a Lions led by Donkey's Podcast episode about cutting a tree in North Korea, and it ended in North Koreans taking turns chopping into pieces an US Officers body for hours. I don't think they care much about image.
There was also that NK guy who used sneak a kick in the balls to SK and US soldiers, that guy was famous. That episode was kind of hillarious.
care much about imageThey came about internal image.
Seriously, having a defected US soldier in North Korea is a huge PR and propaganda win, he must've been the dumbest pain in the ass to be not worth keeping.
I mean, he tried to defect to NK. We already know he's a dumbass.
It's basically a junta with a hereditary monarch, favored soldiers do well for themselves.
I guess he hoped his PR value would buy him some status.
There have been a few other US defectors to the DPRK, and iirc they weren't treated terribly. Though they did feel quite isolated culturally, I suppose you must anticipate that before you do something like that.