More information is emerging about the US soldier who fled into North Korea on Tuesday.
Court documents and a lawyer representing Travis King reveal he faced two assault allegations, and was fined in South Korea for damaging a police car.
That’s as the US military scrambles to establish the fate of King after he made an unauthorized crossing of the inter-Korean border.
A Seoul court said on September 25 last year King punched a man in the face at a club several times but the case was settled.
Two weeks later on October 8, police officers responded to a report of another altercation involving King, and tried to question him.
According to court documents, King continued with his “aggressive behavior” without answering questions from police.
After being put in a police car, he shouted expletives against Koreans, the Korean army, the Korean police, and damaged the door of the vehicle.
A copy of court documents reviewed by Reuters on Wednesday showed that King pleaded guilty to assault and destruction of public goods.
On February 8 the Seoul Western District Court fined him the equivalent of $4,000.
A spokesman for U.S. Forces Korea declined to confirm whether King had been in South Korean or U.S. military detention.
One of the lawyers who represented him at the time told Reuters King had spent time in U.S. military detention since the October case.
Two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the soldier had been due to face disciplinary action by the U.S. military.
Reuters was not immediately able to ascertain whether the disciplinary action was linked to his conviction over damaging the police vehicle.
King’s motivations for his high-stakes gambit remain unclear.
Read more at https://nypost.com/2023/07/19/mom-of-us-soldier-travis-king-who-defected-to-north-korea-cant-imagine-son-doing-anything-like-that/
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