Family members of the U.S. Army private whosprinted across the border into North Korea said Wednesday that he may have felt overwhelmed by recent legal troubles and his possible looming discharge from the military.
Relatives described Pvt. Travis King, 23, as a quiet loner who did not drink or smoke and enjoyed reading the Bible. After growing up up in southeast Wisconsin, he was excited about serving his country in South Korea. Now King’s family is struggling to understand what changed before he dashed into a country with a long history of holding Americans and using them as bargaining chips.
Even with legal troubles hanging over him, King’s relatives said they are at a loss to explain why he acted as he did.“I don’t understand why he would do that, because it seemed like he was on his way back here to the United States,” Myron Gates said. “He was on his way home.” In February, a court fined King 5 million won after he was convicted of assaulting an unidentified person and damaging a police vehicle in Seoul last October, according to a transcript of the verdict obtained by the AP.
On the way to his departing flight, King was escorted as far as customs but left the airport before boarding the plane. It was unclear how he spent the hours until joining the tour in the border village of Panmunjom and running across the border Tuesday afternoon.
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