Travis King, U.S. soldier who crossed into North Korea, to plead guilty to desertion

Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Travis King, the U.S. Army private who ran across the DMZ into North Korea last year, will plead guilty to charges including desertion and assault as part of a plea deal, his lawyer said.

"[King] was charged by the Army with fourteen offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice," his attorney Franklin Rosenblatt said in a statement Monday. "He will plead guilty to five of those, including desertion, 3 counts of disobeying an officer, and assault on a noncommissioned officer."

The remaining nine offenses -- which included solicitation and possession of child sexual abuse material -- will be will be withdrawn and dismissed, Rosenblatt said.

King will enter his plea at a general court-martial on Sept. 20 in Fort Bliss, Texas, according to the lawyer.

"He will explain what he did, answer a military judge's questions about why he is pleading guilty, and be sentenced," Rosenblatt said. "Travis is grateful to his friends and family who have supported him, and to all outside of his circle who did not pre-judge his case based on the initial allegations."

King, a Racine, Wisconsin native, enlisted in the Army in January 2021 as a cavalry scout. He was in South Korea as part of a rotational deployment, where he was arrested and held in a local prison for nearly two months on assault charges.

The 23-year-old was scheduled to return to the United States to face additional disciplinary action in July 2023.

U.S. military officers escorted him to Incheon Airport and took him as far as the security area. Instead of boarding the plane, however, King joined a civilian tour of the heavily guarded Panmunjom Village in the DMZ and dashed across the border .

North Korea held him for two months before releasing him on September 27, 2023, saying that it had completed its investigation.

"King confessed that he illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK as he harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. army and was disillusioned about the unequal U.S. society," a statement carried in state-run Korean Central News Agency said.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

King has not yet made any public remarks about his case or his treatment in the North.

After he returned to the United States, King spent three weeks in debriefings and reintegration at Joint Base San Antonio before returning to his unit at Fort Bliss, Rosenblatt said last month. He has been held in pre-trial detention at Otero County Detention Center in New Mexico.