World

Chaos as U.S. soldier Travis King bolted into North Korea -witness

2023.07.19 10:04


© Reuters. U.S. Private Travis T. King (wearing a black shirt and black cap) is seen in this picture taken during a tour of the tightly controlled Joint Security Area (JSA) on the border between the two Koreas, at the truce village of Panmunjom, South Korea, July 18

By Ju-min Park

SEOUL (Reuters) – American and South Korean guards shouted “get him” as they scrambled unsuccessfully to stop U.S. Army soldier Travis King from sprinting into North Korea, a New Zealand woman who was on the same tour to the border area said on Wednesday.

“It all happened pretty quickly,” said Sarah Leslie, who was in the Joint Security Area (JSA) of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with some 40 other tourists who were walking around and taking photos in the moments before King made a mad dash to nuclear-armed and reclusive North Korea.

The group had just left one of the iconic blue buildings that straddles the border between the two Koreas and is used for negotiations, when King suddenly ran between the structures toward the North, she said.

“Someone ran close to me very fast and I thought, ‘What is going on?’,” Leslie told Reuters. “I don’t think anyone who was sane would want to go to North Korea, so I assumed it was some kind of stunt.”

The U.S. military was scrambling on Wednesday to determine King’s fate after what officials said was a wilful, unauthorised crossing of the border into North Korea, throwing Washington into a new crisis in its dealings with the state.

King was wearing jeans, a black shirt and a black hat with the letters “DMZ” printed on it, Leslie said.

“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.

One American soldier shouted “get him,” and other American and South Korean guards ran after King, but he was already on the north side of the border, Leslie said.

“It was too late,” she said, adding that he disappeared from sight and she didn’t see him enter any buildings or be detained by North Korean guards.

The guards then quickly herded the rest of the group into a building and onto a bus to leave the area, she said.

“I can’t think why anyone would want to do that. You could get shot crossing the line… It was quite frantic.”

(Reportng by Ju-min Park; Writing by Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Josh Smith and Bernadette Baum)

Source link

Related Articles

Back to top button
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 95,340.54 2.15%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 3,581.45 4.69%
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00 0.12%
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 237.73 2.76%
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 651.56 4.84%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 1.48 6.49%
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.404627 2.82%
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 1.00 0.14%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 1.00 3.54%
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 3,584.04 4.73%
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 42.91 0.51%
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.200517 1.23%
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 6.29 0.93%
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 4,256.24 5.02%
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000025 3.47%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.48436 8.67%
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 95,286.53 2.43%
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 8.16 0.14%
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 17.95 0.82%
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 510.12 2.38%
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 3,584.27 4.82%
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 3.55 6.54%
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000019 5.43%
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 6.61 0.14%
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 8.45 5.42%
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 12.53 7.77%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 96.69 1.76%
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 3,769.28 4.66%
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 12.68 5.91%
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 11.26 1.35%
hedera-hashgraph
Hedera (HBAR) $ 0.138558 1.67%
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 1.00 0.09%
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.175519 1.60%
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 31.85 6.20%
polygon-ecosystem-token
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.557207 2.47%
render-token
Render (RENDER) $ 8.22 10.04%
bittensor
Bittensor (TAO) $ 576.17 4.68%
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00 0.18%
fetch-ai
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 1.48 6.34%
kaspa
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.150262 0.58%
arbitrum
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.92439 0.36%
celestia
Celestia (TIA) $ 8.48 4.10%
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 1.00 0.16%
filecoin
Filecoin (FIL) $ 5.71 3.57%
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 23.67 0.10%
vechain
VeChain (VET) $ 0.041637 1.88%
blockstack
Stacks (STX) $ 2.24 5.90%
bonk
Bonk (BONK) $ 0.000044 3.28%
okb
OKB (OKB) $ 54.14 0.63%
cosmos
Cosmos Hub (ATOM) $ 8.09 0.39%