North Korean state media said U.S. soldier Travis King, who ran across the border in July, was expelled after admitting to entering the country illegally.
in July was back in U.S. custody Wednesday, a U.S. official confirmed. North Korea announced earlier Wednesday that it would expel King and said he had confessed to illegally entering the country.
Pentagon Spokesperson Brigadier Gen Patrick Ryder said:"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 for their assistance." North Korea's KCNA released a statement earlier in the day saying:"The relevant agency of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [North Korea] decided to expel Travis King, an American soldier who illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK, in accordance with the laws of the Republic."
This family photo shows a portrait of American soldier Travis King displayed at the home of his grandfather Carl Gates, July 19, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. 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 had been 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 U.S.
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