US Soldier Who Defected to NKorea Will Plead Guilty to Desertion

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Facts

  • Travis King, the US Army private who fled across the South Korean border into North Korea last year, is expected to plead guilty to five charges, including desertion and assaulting an officer, according to the soldier's attorney, Franklin D. Rosenblatt.[1]
  • As part of the plea deal, nine other charges will be dropped, including possession of child pornography, which was connected to allegations that he tried to solicit such material over the social media app Snapchat.[2][3]
  • He also faced charges of leaving his barracks without permission in the fall of 2022, kicking a superior officer in the head in October 2022, and unauthorized consumption of alcohol.[2][4]
  • King had served two months in a South Korean jail for an altercation with locals and then sent to the airport to fly to the US to be disciplined. However, after his security left him at customs, he joined a civilian tour of the Korean border and ran away.[1][5]
  • North Korea held him from July-Sept. 2023, claiming that he defected due to 'inhumane maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army.' King's mother rejected those allegations, too, stating that her son had no reason to defect.[5]
  • Rosenblatt said King is expected to be sentenced on Sept. 20. According to an Army spokeswoman, King will face a court-martial trial if the judge refuses to accept the plea deal.[6]

Sources: [1]Guardian, [2]Washington Post, [3]New York Post (a), [4]New York Post (b), [5]FOX News and [6]NBC.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Military.com. King was facing a long list of serious charges that could have resulted in a far more severe punishment. However, due to the stress he was under at the time of his crimes, most likely due to the death of of his cousin, King deserves this plea agreement given the mental stress. Both the Army and the King family are equally grateful to bring this ordeal to a close.
  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Medium and EL PAÍS English. We shouldn't allow the military to control the narrative of this quite suspect story. Whatever King was running from, whether it be racism or some sort of intelligence operation, the types of accusations against him should set alarm bells off. The government has been known to plant compromising material on people's devices when it wants to silence them, so the full context of this story should be fully investigated.

Predictions