It’s now being reported that the soldier that crossed the DMZ, may have defected to North Korea:
An American soldier, Pvt. Travis King, who has been detained in North Korea after crossing the border from South Korea laughed loudly as he sprinted away from a tour group, a witness has claimed.
The soldier shouted ‘ha ha ha’ as he made the mad dash while taking part in a Joint Security Area Tour, which takes sightseers through the area between North and South Korea.
In a further bizarre twist, it is claimed that the man had managed to join the tour after escaping disciplinary action from his US Army bosses over a separate incident. It’s not known why he faced disciplinary action.
The Korean Herald said the US national had ‘defected’ to North Korea.
Before the border incident, the soldier was being escorted back to the US and was taken through security at a nearby airport. But he somehow managed to flee and return into South Korea before joining the tour, according to CBS News.
The UN Command says it is now trying to negotiate his release. The incident happened at around 3.27pm local time on Tuesday (2.27am ET)
A witness told CBS News the tour group had just visited a building in the area when ‘this man gives out a loud “ha ha ha”, and just runs in between some buildings.’
‘I thought it was a bad joke at first, but when he didn’t come back, I realized it wasn’t a joke, and then everybody reacted and things got crazy,’ the witness said.
There was then a moment of panic before the rest of the group were escorted back to Freedom House, a border landmark, and asked to give statements before they taken away from the area by bus.
A US official told the Washington Post that the soldier had been scheduled on a recent flight but didn’t board. ‘This was a deliberate decision on part of the service member to cross,’ the official said.
Well if this isn’t the most bizarre thing I’ve heard in a long time. And it’s certainly going to complicate matters of his return.
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