North Korea announced on Wednesday, September 27, that it had expelled Travis King, the American soldier who crossed into the country in July, according to the country's state-run media.
North Korea's KCNA television network said King had confessed to illegally entering the country and they had concluded investigations.
"The relevant agency of
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea decided to deport Travis King, an
American soldier who illegally entered the territory of the Republic, in
accordance with the laws of the Republic," KCNA reported.
It was not immediately clear
when King might be deported from North Korea, or where the secretive nation
would send him.
"The investigation into
Travis King, a U.S. soldier who was detained after illegally invading the
territory of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [North Korea] from the
Joint Security Area in Panmunjom on July 18, has been completed," KCNA
said in its report, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
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King, a Private 2nd Class in
the U.S. Army, entered North Korea while taking part in a guided tour of the
border village of Panmunjom, which he joined after absconding from an airport
in Seoul, South Korea, where he was supposed to have boarded a flight back to
the U.S.
North Korea previously claimed
that King had told investigators he crossed the border because he,
"harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination
within the U.S. Army."
The soldier was scheduled to
return to the U.S. after serving time at a South Korea detention facility for
assaulting two people and kicking a police car while in the country. After
parting ways from his escort to the airport, King skipped his flight and made
his way to the border with North Korea.
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