The U.S. Army has charged Travis King, a soldier who ran across the North Korean border in July, with crimes including desertion and soliciting child pornography.
King, 23, was released from the North Korean government’s custody last month and now faces eight charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to The Daily Wire.
King was held by North Korean authorities since July 18, when he reportedly sprinted away from a tour group into the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. (RELATED: U.S. Army Private Released After Months Being Detained In North Korea)
King is accused of soliciting a Snapchat user in July to “knowingly and willingly produce child pornography.” He is also accused of possession of child pornography. The soldier’s mother, Claudine Gates, asked for her son to “be afforded the presumption of innocence.”
“The man I raised, the man I dropped off at boot camp, the man who spent the holidays with me before deploying did not drink,” Gates said. “A mother knows her son, and I believe something happened to mine while he was deployed. The Army promised to investigate what happened at Camp Humphreys, and I await the results.”
After the U.S. negotiated King’s release, the Swedish government picked him up in North Korea before handing him over to the U.S. ambassador in China, according to reports. He was then flown to a military hospital in Texas, where he received medical and mental health evaluations.
King, who had reportedly been disciplined for assault in South Korea and was set to be removed from the U.S. military, allegedly told the North Koreans that he fled into the country because he “harbored ill feelings against inhuman mistreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army” and “was disillusioned at the unequal American society.” The alleged remarks made by King after entering the Hermit Kingdom could not be verified by the Pentagon.
Prior to crossing into North Korea, King was involved in at least two separate episodes where South Korean police were brought in to intervene.
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