A tourist who saw a plain-clothes American soldier sprint across the South Korean border into North Korea initially thought it was a stunt.
New Zealander Sarah Leslie and her father were part of a tour group that departed from Seoul Tuesday morning to visit the Military Demarcation Line separating the two countries. In an interview with The Associated Press, Leslie gave her eyewitness account of Pvt. Travis King leaving the other 43 tourists behind and running straight into North Korean territory, where he is currently detained.
Leslie said she had no idea at the time that King, who was dressed casually in jeans and a T-shirt, was a soldier, or that he was facing disciplinary action back home in the U.S.
A senior defense official told Fox News that King had just finished about two months in a South Korean detention facility following a physical altercation with locals. After King was arrested and throughout the time he was held at the facility, he made comments that he did not want to come back to America, according to the official.
After his release on July 10, King was scheduled to travel home Monday to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he could have faced additional military discipline, including discharge from service, The Associated Press reported.
Instead, he “willfully and without authorization crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” according to a U.S. Forces Korea spokesperson.
Leslie told The Associated Press her tour group went a step further than many by visiting the Joint Security Area in the village of Panmunjom, allowing tourists to effectively step on North Korean soil inside one of the buildings, which are jointly held. To get on such a tour, she said, required submitting their passports and getting permits in advance.
The tourists left Seoul by bus early Tuesday morning, and Leslie said she noticed that King was keeping to himself and didn’t seem to talk with anyone else on the tour. At one point, she recounted, he purchased a DMZ hat from a gift shop.
Continued…
Approved ~ MJM
