U.S. Army deserter Pvt. Travis King released from North Korea, now back in American custody

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SEOUL — Travis King, the troubled U.S. Army private who shocked the world when he defected to North Korea in July, is back in U.S. hands after Pyongyang abruptly deported him.

Biden administration officials confirmed on Wednesday morning that the transfer had taken place after the private was released across the North Korean border with China.

“U.S. officials have secured the return of Pvt. Travis King from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

In a separate statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin thanked the Chinese and Swedish governments for helping in the transfer of custody of the private.

The statement came hours after North Korean state media reported that the regime of leader Kim Jong-un had decided to expel the 23-year-old American, providing no other details beyond saying regime officials had completed their interrogation of the American detainee. U.S. officials said the private was to be taken to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, and was expected to arrive by Thursday morning.

U.S. officials declined to comment on details surrounding diplomacy that went into Pvt. King’s release from North Korea. Many analysts had expressed concern the Kim regime might prolong the detention to wring concessions out of the U.S. or South Korea or exploit the soldier for propaganda.

“We can confirm that Pvt. King was very happy to be on his way home. That has been quite clear as we have resumed our contact with him, and he is very much looking forward to being reunited with his family,” a senior U.S. official said.

When pressed on a background call with reporters on whether Washington made concessions to the Kim regime, one senior Biden administration responded bluntly: “The answer is simple. There were none. Full stop.”

“For the last many weeks, the U.S. government has been reaching out to [North Korea] through multiple channels to ascertain his welfare and to try to secure his safe return home. That includes outreach at the United Nations and through our United Nations Command,” the official said. “It also includes ongoing work with the government of Sweden and its status as the protecting power of the United States and other countries who have diplomatic relations” with Pyongyang.

“We have been in communication with Pvt. King’s family throughout this process,” the official added.

Swedish officials took Pvt. King to the border, where he was met by the U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, the Swedish ambassador to China, and at least one U.S. Defense Department official.

Senior administration officials who spoke with reporters emphasized that China played no mediating role with North Korea in facilitating the American’s release.

Pvt. King, who had been held for 71 days, was being flown Wednesday to a U.S. military base in South Korea before being returned to the United States.

Unanswered questions swirl around his case, including why he went to North Korea to begin with. His future is uncertain, given that he was declared AWOL by the U.S. government and could face incarceration in a U.S. military jail, forfeiture of pay or a dishonorable discharge stemming from legal troubles while deployed in South Korea.

Citing the grim fate of an earlier American in North Korea — college student Otto Warmbier, who fell mortally ill while in North Korean custody — Pyongyang may have decided to deport Pvt. King in hopes of sidestepping a major diplomatic and security headache, analysts said.

The young American soldier appeared to offer minimal value as an intelligence asset for North Korea and — given his troublesome history with the U.S. Army — would likely have had difficulty converting to the isolated lifestyle of North Korea had the Kim regime allowed him to stay.

Troubled deployment

Prior to deserting, Pvt. King was a soldier assigned to the large U.S. military mission in South Korea. The military had ordered him sent home after a troubled posting that included brushes with the law.

But the Wisconsin-born GI fled an airport where he was due to board a flight to his home base in Texas, and on July 18, mixed in with a tourist group at the Joint Security Area for the Demilitarized Zone and dashed past stunned security guards to the North Korean side of the border.

After a long silence, North Korean media revealed in August that Pvt. King, who is Black, had defected as he “harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army” and against “unequal American society.”

Prior to going AWOL, Pvt. King had been incarcerated by South Korean authorities for off-duty, violent incidents involving locals.

“I guess the North Koreans figured this guy is useless and maybe they just want to get rid of him,” said Daniel Pinkston, an international relations professor with Troy University. “If he was having problems in the U.S. Army, adjusting to the discipline and structure, and having problems in South Korea, imagine what it is like for him in North Korea.”

North Korean officials “probably debriefed him on what he knew about the U.S. order of battle and weapons systems and doctrine — though I doubt if he knew much,” Mr. Pinkston, a U.S. Air Force veteran, added. “As propaganda, he is probably not of value — more of a problem.”

North Korea released former U.S. Army Sgt. Charles Jenkins, who defected in 1965, as a byproduct of negotiations with Tokyo in 2004. In recent years, it has also deported a pair of American journalists who crossed into the country from China, and a U.S. citizen who sought asylum there.

In the most unsettling precedent, U.S. college student Warmbier was detained in Pyongyang in 2016 on murky charges of “subversion.” Warmbier died in June 2017 after being returned comatose. Theories about why he was in a coma include North Korean abuse and a failed suicide attempt.

North Korean state media reports on Wednesday carried no information on Pvt. King’s state of health.

• Guy Taylor reported from Washington, D.C., for this article, which is based in part on wire service reports.