North Korea expels U.S. Soldier Travis King who ran into the country over claims of suffering racism and maltreatment in US army

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.  

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 the border with North Korea.