North Korea has remained SILENT on arrested soldier Travis King who ran across the border, state department says

• Travis King was set to go back to the US but crossed the North Korea border
• The 23-year-old Army Pvt. was facing disciplinary action back in the US
• King is believed to be the first US soldier to cross into North Korea since 1982

There have been ‘no new communications’ from North Korea about US soldier Travis King who bolted across the country’s heavily fortified border last week.

US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said they have not received a response from North Korea after the American-led UN Command announced on Monday that it had started talks with the country following the incident. 

Miller said it was his understanding ‘that there have been no new communications since last week,’ but added that the ‘North Koreans acknowledge they received the message.’

US Army Pvt. King, 23, has not been publicly seen or heard from since he made the mad dash across the border after skipping his flight back to the US, where he was facing disciplinary action. 

This photo shows a portrait of American soldier Travis King at the home of his grandfather Carl Gates, Wednesday in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Pvt. King bolted into North Korea while on a tour of the Demilitarized Zone Tuesday – a day after he was supposed to travel to a base in the US

King, circled, is pictured during the tour moments before his dash across the border into North Korea. He was meant to go back to his country the day before the incident, but crossed one of the world’s most heavily fortified borders into perhaps its most mysterious, isolated nation

‘I saw the reports about contact between the U.N. Command and North Korea. It is my understanding that there have been no new communications since last week — communications that happened in the early days,’ Miller said Monday during a State Department briefing.

‘I think the reports may have resulted from a misinterpretation of the U.N. Command’s original statement, but I will leave it to them to discuss the details of that,’ Miller added. ‘But I’m not aware of any new communications other than those that happened in the very early hours or early days after he went across the border.’

‘They acknowledged that they received the message,’ he continued. ‘On our side, as I said last week, we have a number of channels through which we’re able to send messages to them,’ Miller also said. ‘We’ve delivered the messages to North Korea, but we have as yet not received a response.’

It comes after Gen. Andrew Harrison, the deputy commander of the United Nations Command (UNC) said that a ‘conversation has commenced’ with North Korea over the incident.

King was expected to board an American Airlines flight back home last Tuesday from Incheon International Airport outside of Seoul. 

The border between North Korea and South Korea is heavily guarded

King had been scheduled to board a flight back to the United States to face a disciplinary hearing for a series of offenses he committed while stationed in South Korea, but instead crossed one of the world’s most heavily fortified borders into perhaps its most isolated nation

He would have then been administratively separated from the service when he returned to Fort Bliss in Texas, a US Army official told CNN.

‘He passed through all the security points up to the boarding gate but he told the airline staff that his passport was missing,’ an official at the Incheon airport told CNN. 

King was then escorted him back outside to the departure side, the official said.

The next day, King joined other tourists as they went into the DMZ and the Joint Security Area, where he then bolted across the border and into North Korea.

King is believed to be the first US soldier to cross into North Korea since 1982.

Video shows the private crossing the border during a tour of Panmunjom while he was supposed to be heading to Fort Bliss, Texas, following his release from prison in South Korea on an assault conviction.

North Korea has still not produced the 23-year-old King or acknowledged his arrest

King crossed the border at Panmunjom, during a tour of the Joint Security Area of the Demilitarized Zone

US officials and family members have since expressed concern about the soldier’s wellbeing and mental state, with the Army adding that North Korea had ignored requests for information about him.

Analysts say North Korea may wait weeks or even months to provide meaningful information about King to maximize leverage and add urgency to US efforts to secure his release.

Others say the country may try to wrest concessions from Washington, such as tying his release to the United States cutting back its military activities with South Korea, as it looks to perform a victory laps nearly 70 years to the day removed from the end of the Korean War – which the Kims famously claim the North won.

King’s crossing came at a time of high tensions in the Korean Peninsula, where the pace of both North Korea´s weapons demonstrations and the United States´ combined military exercises have intensified in a tit-for-tat cycle.

King’s crossing came at a time of high tensions in the Korean Peninsula, where the pace of both North Korea´s weapons demonstrations and the United States´ combined military exercises have intensified in a tit-for-tat cycle. Ex- President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea on June 30, 2019

On Monday, South Korea’s military said a nuclear-propelled US submarine arrived at a port on Jeju Island. The arrival of the USS Annapolis adds to the allies’ show of force to counter North Korean nuclear threats.

North Korea reacted to its arrival by test-firing ballistic and cruise missiles in apparent demonstrations that it could make nuclear strikes against South Korea and deployed US naval vessels.

North Korea’s defense minister also issued a veiled threat, saying the Kentucky´s docking in South Korea could be grounds for the North to use a nuclear weapon against it.

North Korea has used similar rhetoric before, but the statement underscored how strained relations are now.

The United States and South Korea have expanded their combined military exercises and increased regional deployments of US aircraft and ships, including bombers, aircraft carriers and submarines in a show of force against North Korea, which has test-fired around 100 missiles since the start of 2022.

Tensions eased slightly during Donald Trump’s presidency, when he met with Kim Jong-Un at the demilitarized zone where King crossed the border.

King had been acting ‘reckless and crazy’ for several months before the incident, following the tragic death of his seven-year-old cousin from a rare genetic disorder, a relative said.

He suffered a breakdown after King’Nazir Gates passed away in February 2023 and family members believe this also contributed to his issues with South Korean authorities.

‘I can’t see him doing that intentionally if he was in his right mind,’ King’s maternal grandfather, Carl Gates, told The Associated Press from his Kenosha, Wisconsin, home

King suffered a breakdown after King’Nazir Gates (pictured) passed away in February

King’s mother, Claudine Gates, just wants her son to return to their Wisconsin home (pictured)

Before the border dash, King had also been jailed in South Korea for two months after attacking a man in a night club and damaging a police car. He was also facing disciplinary action from his Army superiors.

King’Nazir’s father, Carl Gates, who is the brother of Travis King’s mom, said it seemed like the soldier was ‘breaking down’ as his cousin’s condition deteriorated.

‘It affected Travis a lot because he couldn’t be here. He was in the Army, overseas,’ said Gates.

When my son was on life support, and when my son passed away… Travis started [being] reckless [and] crazy when he knew my son was about to die,’ he told the Daily Beast .

‘I know it was related to what he did.’

King’Nazir suffered from an extremely rare disorder called SPTLC-2, which caused his muscles to deteriorate. The little boy went through extensive treatment for the condition, but he deteriorated rapidly several weeks before his death.

His family said he was ‘always in good spirits’ despite his illness and described him as an ‘animal lover’ and ‘outdoor lover’.

Gates said King ‘loved and cherished’ his cousin, adding: ‘Picture yourself being in the Army and your baby cousin from your favorite, my only child, he’s struggling and going through pain.

‘And he’s crying like a baby, and now you’re in the service and you can’t do nothing about it. And then you’re crying like a baby. The pain came from my son, and it escalated to this s***.’

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