Many, perhaps a little sensationalistically, continue to speculate over the fate of American soldier Travis King after he fled into North Korean territory earlier this week. North Korea has said nothing about his fate.
The 23-year-old soldier bolted across the border on Tuesday during a civilian tour of Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas. He’s the first US military personnel to defect in decades. A private with the Army’s 1st Armored Division, King had legal issues and was facing disciplinary action and a possible discharge after serving two months in a South Korean prison on assault charges.
What is almost assured is that North Korea will milk the border crossing dry for propaganda purposes, especially given that King entered voluntarily.
North Korea could also try to use him as a bargaining chip to engage with Washington, but that appears unlikely. Pyongyang could demand that the US scale back its military activities with South Korea in exchange for King’s release but over the life of a defector? Seems improbable.
North Korea hasn’t really ever been able to do that in the past, according to Andrei Lankov, director of the Seoul-based Korea Risk Group. The exception, however, was American college student Otto Warmbier, who was held up in a North Korean prison for 18 months and died shortly after being returned to the US in a coma in 2017.
Thae Yong Ho, a former diplomat at the North Korean Embassy in London who defected to South Korea in 2016, said Pyongyang hasn’t ever released an American soldier who walked into the country voluntarily, though King is not some prize hostage. It would cost a lot to maintain his life, and he most likely has low-level US military intelligence.
