Travis King, the American soldier who crossed into North Korea on foot from South Korea in July 2023, is expected to plead guilty to five of the 14 charges The US military accused him of last year, including desertion and assault of a non-commissioned officer, according to the public prosecutor.
“U.S. Soldier Travis King will take responsibility for his conduct and plead guilty,” his attorney, Franklin Rosenblatt, said in a statement. King will plead not guilty to the remaining charges, which the Army will withdraw and dismiss.
The guilty plea is expected to be entered Sept. 20 at a general court-martial, where King will explain what he did, answer questions from a military judge and be sentenced, Rosenblatt said.
“Travis is grateful to his friends and family who have supported him, as well as to everyone outside his inner circle who has not prejudged his case based on the initial allegations,” Rosenblatt said.
After King entered North Korea, the totalitarian state’s tightly controlled media said He had confessed to entering the country illegally and said he would be deported. He was sent across the North Korean border to China, where he was transferred to the United States in September 2023.
Morry Gash / AP
U.S. officials at the time said no concessions were made by Washington to secure the king’s release.
At a briefing after King’s release, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that while he did not have specific information about King’s treatment in North Korean custody, it was likely that King had been questioned. “This would be consistent with the DPRK’s past practices with respect to detainees,” he said.
King was later charged by the Army with several crimes, including desertion, assaulting other soldiers and officers and soliciting and possessing child pornography, according to documents obtained by CBS News.
“I love my son unconditionally and am extremely concerned about his mental health. As a mother, I ask that my son be given the presumption of innocence,” King’s mother, Claudine Gates, said in a statement to CBS News last year. “The man I raised, the man I dropped off at boot camp, the man who spent the holidays with me before he deployed, was not a drinker. A mother knows her son, and I believe something happened to mine while he was deployed.”
and Tucker Reals contributed to this report.
