Travis King: Who Is the US Soldier Who Crossed into North Korea? 

A TV screen shows a file image of American soldier Travis King during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. (AP)
A TV screen shows a file image of American soldier Travis King during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. (AP)
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Travis King: Who Is the US Soldier Who Crossed into North Korea? 

A TV screen shows a file image of American soldier Travis King during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. (AP)
A TV screen shows a file image of American soldier Travis King during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. (AP)

North Korea confirmed for the first time on Wednesday that it is holding American soldier Travis King, saying he crossed the border last month to escape racism and mistreatment in the US military and society.

Who is Private King?

Private Travis T. King, who joined the US Army in January 2021, is a cavalry scout with the Korean Rotational Force, which is part of the US security commitment to South Korea.

He was assigned to an element of the US 1st Armored Division and was now administratively attached to a unit in 4th Infantry Division, a US army spokesperson said.

His record includes routine awards such as the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Defense Service Medal and Overseas Service Ribbon.

His family is from Racine, Wisconsin.

Why did he cross to North Korea and where is he now?

King's motivation and exact location remain unconfirmed.

He "harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the US Army" and wanted to stay in the North or a third country because he was "disillusioned at the unequal American society," according to North Korean state news agency KCNA.

KCNA said he was held by the North Korean army after he crossed, but did not elaborate.

The Pentagon on Tuesday said that it could not verify King's alleged comments, but that it was working through all channels to bring him home.

King's uncle, Myron Gates, told ABC News in August that his nephew, who is Black, had experienced racism during his military deployment, and after he spent time in a South Korean jail, he did not sound like himself.

Another uncle, Carl Gates, told the Daily Beast his nephew had been "breaking down" after the death of a 7-year-old cousin this year.

How did he get to the border?

King had served nearly two months in detention in South Korea and was being escorted to Seoul's Incheon International Airport to fly home and face probable disciplinary action. But he never made it to his plane.

He had passed alone through security to his gate at the airport, where he told American Airlines staff that he lost his passport, an airport official told Reuters.

Escorted by an airline worker with the approval of a South Korean justice ministry official, King left the boarding zone and was seen exiting through a departure gate.

The next day King joined a bus tour of the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice.

What happened at the border?

Roughly 24 hours after leaving the airport, he sprinted into North Korea while touring the Joint Security Area, which sits astride the border.

Sarah Leslie, a tourist from New Zealand who was on the tour with King, said she saw him suddenly run across the border as US and South Korean troops tried to stop him.

"I probably only saw him running for like a few seconds and that's all it would have taken to get across the border," she said.

What disciplinary action was he facing?

Two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had been due to face US military disciplinary action, without saying what the action was linked to.

A South Korean court ruling said King pleaded guilty to assault and destruction of public goods stemming from an incident in October and on Feb. 8 the Seoul Western District Court fined him 5 million won ($4,000).

He faced two allegations of assault, and pleaded guilty to one instance of assault and destroying public property for damaging a police car during a profanity-laced tirade against Koreans, according to court documents.

King spent time in a South Korean prison, however, in lieu of paying the fine.



The US Election by Numbers

Clark County Election Workers inspect mail-in ballots for the 2024 Election at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 02 November 2024. (EPA)
Clark County Election Workers inspect mail-in ballots for the 2024 Election at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 02 November 2024. (EPA)
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The US Election by Numbers

Clark County Election Workers inspect mail-in ballots for the 2024 Election at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 02 November 2024. (EPA)
Clark County Election Workers inspect mail-in ballots for the 2024 Election at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 02 November 2024. (EPA)

Swing states, electoral college votes, candidates up and down the ballot, and millions of potential voters: Here is the US election, broken down by numbers.

- Two -

Several independents ran -- and at least one, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, stumbled into a number of eyebrow-raising headlines.

But in the end, the presidential race comes down to a binary choice, with the two candidates from the major parties -- Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump -- seeking to lead a polarized America.

- Five -

November 5 -- Election Day, traditionally held on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November.

- Seven -

The number of swing states -- those which don't clearly favor one party over the other, meaning they are up for grabs.

Harris and Trump are courting voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, concentrating their campaign efforts there in a push to ensure victory.

In a razor-tight election, just a handful of votes in any of those states could decide the outcome.

- 34 and 435 -

Voters won't just decide the White House occupant on Election Day -- they will also hit refresh on the US Congress.

Thirty-four Senate seats and all 435 spots in the House of Representatives are up for grabs.

In the House, members serve a two-year term. Republicans currently have the majority, and Harris's Democrats will be hoping for a turnaround.

In the Senate, 34 seats out of 100 are available, for a six-year term. Republicans are hoping to overturn the narrow Democratic majority.

- 538 -

Welcome to the Electoral College, the indirect system of universal suffrage that governs presidential elections in the United States.

Each state has a different number of electors -- calculated by adding the number of their elected representatives in the House, which varies according to population, to the number of senators (two per state).

Rural Vermont, for example, has just three electoral votes. Giant California, meanwhile, has 54.

There are 538 electors in total scattered across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. To take the White House, a candidate must win 270 votes.

- 774,000 -

The number of poll workers who made sure the 2020 election ran smoothly, according to the Pew Research Center.

There are three types of election staff in the United States.

The majority are poll workers -- recruited to do things like greet voters, help with languages, set up voting equipment, and verify voter IDs and registrations.

Election officials are elected, hired or appointed to carry out more specialized duties such as training poll workers, according to Pew.

Poll watchers are usually appointed by political parties to observe the ballot count -- expected to be particularly contentious this year, thanks to Trump's refusal to agree to unconditionally accept the result.

Many election workers have already spoken to AFP about the pressure and threats they are receiving ahead of the November 5 vote.

- 75 million -

As of November 2, more than 75 million Americans had voted early, according to a University of Florida database.

Most US states permit in-person voting or mail-in voting to allow people to deal with scheduling conflicts or an inability to cast their ballots on election day itself on November 5.

- 244 million -

The number of Americans who will be eligible to vote in 2024, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

How many of those will actually cast their ballot remains to be seen, of course. But the Pew Research Center says that the midterm elections of 2018 and 2022, and the presidential vote of 2020, produced three of the highest turnouts of their kind seen in the United States in decades.

"About two-thirds (66 percent) of the voting-eligible population turned out for the 2020 presidential election -- the highest rate for any national election since 1900," Pew says on its website.

That translated to nearly 155 million voters, according to the Census Bureau.