SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Wednesday that it will expel Travis King, the U.S. soldier who intentionally ran across the border into the isolated country this summer.
King, 23, bolted across the heavily armed border on July 18 during a tour of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
A statement reported by the state-run news agency KCNA said that King will be “expelled” at an unspecified time. No details were given of the destination of the American Army private, who had been based in South Korea.
The statement added that King had confessed he “illegally intruded” into North Korean territory because “he was disillusioned about inhumane treatment and racial discrimination” in the army as well as the “inequality existing within the American Society,” KCNA said.
The U.S. has not yet responded to these claims.
Before he crossed the border, King had not long been released from a South Korean prison and was being escorted by the military to Incheon International Airport near Seoul to possibly face further disciplinary action in the U.S.
A senior administration official told NBC News in July that King instead joined a commercial tour group headed for the Joint Security Area, a U.N.-administered area between the North and the South.
