The announcement of Travis King’s deportation, without specifying the date and location, followed the end of the military’s interrogation, KCNA said, according to the US agency AP.
King admitted that he entered North Korea illegally because he had “a bad feeling about inhumane mistreatment and racial discrimination” within the U.S. military, according to KCNA.
He also claimed that he was “disillusioned with the inequality in American society,” he added.
The AP said it was impossible to verify the authenticity of the comments attributed by KCNA to King, who was part of the U.S. contingent in South Korea.
The soldier entered North Korea while on a civilian visit to a border village on July 18, becoming the first U.S. citizen to be detained in the North in nearly five years.
At the time he took part in the civilian visit and crossed the border, he was believed to be en route to Fort Bliss, Texas, after being released from a South Korean prison on an assault conviction.
After weeks of silence, North Korea confirmed in August that it had detained King and was investigating the circumstances of his entry into the country.
At the time, the command of the UN Multinational Force in South Korea announced that the issue was the subject of “discussions with the Korean People’s Army.” [do Norte] through the mechanism of the ceasefire agreement”.
The agreement in question allowed for the cessation of hostilities in the Korean War (1950-1953), in which a UN-authorized international force, led by the United States, took on North Korean forces with support from China and the then Soviet Union.
North Korea and South Korea technically remain at war because they never signed a peace treaty, only an agreement to stop fighting.
Most of the border between the two Asian countries has been fortified.
Source: DN
