Travis King, the U.S. soldier who ran across the Demilitarized Zone and into North Korea last year, was sentenced Friday to a prison term that amounts to the time he has already served.
King pleaded guilty to five charges: One count of desertion, one count of assault on a non-commissioned officer, and three counts of disobeying a lawful order.
He was sentenced by a military judge to 12 months in prison for desertion and one month on each of the four other counts. King has served 338 days already.
Defense attorneys noted that King spent 63 days in North Korea in addition to his time served in the U.S.
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King was also dishonorably discharged, something sought by the prosecution. King and his attorneys had sought a “bad conduct discharge.”
“With time already served and credit for good behavior, Travis is now free and will return home,” King’s attorney, Frank Rosenblatt, said.
King, a private second class, ran across the DMZ separating South Korea and communist North Korea on July 18, 2023. He was on a tour group in the Panmunjom, South Korea, when he crossed the fortified zone and entered North Korea where he was detained.
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King was returned to the U.S. by North Korea in September of that year, following what the Department of Defense called a "multiweek diplomatic effort."
“The outcome of today’s court-martial is a fair and just result that reflects the seriousness of the offenses committed by Pvt. King and will promote good order and discipline within the U.S. Army by deterring Soldiers from committing similar offenses in the future,” prosecutor Maj. Allyson Montgomery with the Army's Office of the Special Counsel was quoted as saying in an Army publication.
King had been in the Army since January 2021. He was being sent back to the U.S. from South Korea after violating part of the joint security agreement and after completing a punishment there, a senior U.S. administration official said around the time of the incident.
He had been escorted by military police as far as they could go — a security checkpoint at Incheon Airport, a commercial airport about an hour and a half from the DMZ.
But instead of continuing alone to the gate and flying back to the U.S., King tagged along with a group that had just arrived and was heading for Panmunjom, the official said.
King’s defense attorneys argued that King was encouraged to enlist in the Army by a recruiter and that he had trouble adjusting and experienced incidents of racism in his unit. King, who is Black, wrote in a letter that his unit was unhappy and recounted racist remarks like "Smile King, we can’t see you."
The incident occurred five decades after another U.S. soldier, James Dresnok, defected to North Korea in 1962 as he was being threatened with a court-martial.
Dresnok, according to his sons, was in North Korea when he died of a stroke in 2016.
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