OPINION | This article contains the author's opinion.
Travis King, a United States soldier who had been held in North Korea for over two months, has now arrived back in America.
King was detained after intentionally crossing over into a forbidden zone.
This week, North Korea stated that they had “decided to expel” King, and sent him back home. (Trending: Biden Breaks Texas Town’s All-Time Record)
Travis King, the American soldier who sprinted across the border into North Korea in July, returned to the U.S. early Thursday. Here’s what we know. pic.twitter.com/14BRo5wj2x
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 28, 2023
King flew into Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston. He will be sent to Texas for continued medical examination.
In total, King was detained for just over 70 days.
While King has made it home, his arrival will now mean that he will face the consequences of being declared “absent without license” from the military.
The National Security Council gave confirmation of King’s arrival just this week. (Trending: 8 Undeniable Facts About Joe Biden)
“U.S. officials have secured the return of Private Travis King from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” announced General Patrick Ryder.
“We appreciate the hard work of personnel in the Army, United States Forces Korea, and across the Department of Defense to bring Private King home, and we thank the governments of Sweden and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for their assistance,” he continued.
Swedish government workers escorted the Private to the border of China earlier this week, where he was then met by others before making the return home.
Claudine Gates, the mother of King, emphasized that she will be “forever grateful.”
“Ms. Gates will be forever grateful to the United States Army and all its interagency partners for a job well done,” said Gates’ spokesman.
“For the foreseeable future, the family asks for privacy and Ms. Gates does not intend to give any interviews.”
American government officials had no way of speaking with King during his time in North Korea, and were never made aware as to why he ended up there to begin with.
It was reported by a U.S. official earlier in the week that King had found himself in a fight with residents of South Korea, and then took off across the border after being released from 8 weeks of detainment in the South.
King was caught by North Korean authorities shortly after reaching the border. (Trending: Joe Biden’s Legacy, A Closer Look)
Reportedly, King expressed a desire to remain in South Korea rather than return to the States during the course of his two months in detention there.
North Korean state media would later state that the Private chose to flee North due to “inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army,” but King’s mother has dismissed these reports as false.
It has been decades since the last soldier of the United States crossed into a North Korean Demilitarized Zone.
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