About that US serviceman who "defected" to North Korea ... seems like we're well rid of him. A tip o' the hat to Big Country Expat for the link to this Korean news report.
Legal sources here said Thursday that Pvt. Travis King, 23, received a 5 million-won ($3,955) fine from a court in Seoul on Feb. 8 on charges of inflicting damage on a police patrol vehicle.
King, however, did not pay the fine and was eventually detained in a prison workshop for 48 days in line with a court ruling that he be held for one day for each unpaid 100,000 won, the sources said.
He was accused of repeatedly kicking the back door of a police patrol vehicle in Seoul's Mapo district in the wee hours of Oct. 8 and inflicting damage that required 584,000-won worth of repairs.
King was apprehended by police at that time for suspected violence at a nightclub. He reportedly did not cooperate with police officers demanding his personal information and kicked the door of the police car while shouting foul language against Koreans and the Korean military, according to police investigations.
King was detained from May 24 to July 10 in a penitentiary in Cheonan, 85 kilometers south of Seoul, before being released and relocated to an American military base in South Korea for a weeklong stay. He was reportedly found to have fled Incheon International Airport on Monday afternoon while in the process of boarding a flight to Dallas.
King then willfully crossed the inter-Korean border into North Korea without authorization during a tour to the Joint Security Area on Tuesday and is believed to be in North Korea's custody, according to the United Nations Command and American defense authorities.
Interestingly, the US armed forces did not seek to have him do his time in a military jail, but were content to leave him in a Korean prison for the duration.  It's also reported that he was on his way back to the USA to serve another couple of months in military prison here, followed by a dishonorable discharge for bad conduct.
I suspect North Korea is about to find out (and may already have done so) that they made a very bad bargain when they let him in.  I suggest that, if they offer to return him, we should refuse.  We have enough problem children to deal with already.