SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Wednesday it would expel a U.S. soldier who came into the country through the heavily armed border between the Koreas in July.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said authorities had completed their questioning of Pvt. Travis King. It said he confessed to entering the North illegally because he harbored “aversion to inhumane mistreatment and racial discrimination” within the U.S. Army and was “disillusioned with unequal U.S. society.”
It is impossible to verify the authenticity of the comments attributed to King.
The authorities did not say when or where they planned to deport King.
King, who had served in South Korea, sprinted through a border village into North Korea on July 18 during a civilian tour, becoming the first American in nearly five years to be confirmed to have been detained in the North.
By the time he joined the civilian tour and crossed the border, he was supposed to be On the way to Fort Bliss, Texasafter being released from prison in South Korea following an assault conviction.
After weeks of silence, North Korea confirmed in August that it had arrested King and questioned the circumstances of his border crossing.
In one (n Interview last month with The Associated PressKing’s mother, Claudine Gates, said her son had “so many reasons” to want to come home.
“I just can’t imagine him ever wanting to just stay in Korea when he has family in America. He has so many reasons to come home,” she said.