A US soldier who defected to North Korea has been charged by the Army with multiple crimes, including desertion, assaulting fellow soldiers and soliciting child pornography, according to documents obtained by NBC News.
Pvt. Second Class Travis King, 23, was expelled from North Korea in late September and taken into U.S. custody in neighboring China, officials said at the time. His release came two months after he ran across the fortified border between North and South Korea, where he was stationed.
King is charged with eight counts, according to the indictment, including desertion in connection with his dash into North Korea, one of the world’s most reclusive countries.
In two other counts, he is accused of soliciting a Snapchat user to produce child pornography and possessing a video of what appears to be a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
![Pvt. Second Class Travis King.](https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best/rockcms/2023-07/230724-travis-king-mn-1105-72b334.jpg)
Other charges include trying to escape from US military custody in October 2022, leaving a base after curfew, striking other military personnel and drinking alcohol against orders, the document says.
King ran across the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South Korea on July 18. Earlier that day he was escorted by the US military to an airport outside Seoul, where he was to fly back to the US for possible further disciplinary action after serving 48. days in a South Korean prison instead of paying a $4,000 fine on charges that included damaging public property .
Instead of boarding the plane, King joined a civilian travel group headed for the joint security area along the DMZ, a senior administration official said at the time. During the tour he broke away from the group and ran across the border “willingly and without authorization,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
Little is known about how King was treated in North Korean custody, and he has not publicly explained his actions.
King, who returned to the United States on September 28, was undergoing reintegration at Joint Base San Antonio but was transferred to Fort Bliss, Texas, on Wednesday. A military commander signed an order committing him to pretrial detention, one of his lawyers said.
King’s legal team believes that was a mistake, and a hearing likely to be held next week will determine whether he remains locked up, said Franklin D. Rosenblatt, chief counsel for King’s legal team and an assistant professor at the Mississippi College School of Law.
“We’re asking people to be fair about this and to withhold judgment,” said Rosenblatt, who previously represented Bowe Bergdahl, the former Army soldier who pleaded guilty to desertion after he left his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was captured by the military. Taliban.
“I think we have to tread very carefully when we take people who have come back from captivity and decide we’re just going to throw the book at them and put them in pretrial detention,” he said.
King’s mother, Claudine Gates, said in a statement Thursday that she is concerned about her son’s mental health and that he should be presumed innocent.
“A mother knows her son, and I believe something happened to mine while he was deployed,” she said.
“I am grateful for the extraordinary legal team representing my son,” she added, “and I look forward to my son having his day in court.”