North Korea Claims U.S. Soldier Fled ‘Maltreatment’ in Army

North Korea said on Wednesday that Pvt. Travis T. King, the American soldier who fled across the inter-Korean border into its territory on July 18, wanted to seek refuge in the isolated Communist country or a third country, according to a state media report.

The report by the Korean Central News Agency is the first time the North has commented on Private King’s case.

During an investigation by North Korean officials, Private King “confessed that he had decided to come over to the DPRK as he harbored ill feelings against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army,” the Korean Central News Agency said, using the abbreviation of the country’s official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Private King “admitted that he illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK,” saying that he did so because he “was disillusioned at the unequal American society,” the news agency said.

The report did not provide any further details about his fate, including his health condition or whether North Korea planned to accept him as a refugee or send him along to a third country. North Korea said that its investigation was continuing, indicating that it had yet to decide on Private King’s fate.

The Pentagon has said that Private King crossed into the North “willfully and without authorization” after he dashed across the inter-Korean border while he was on a group tour of the Joint Security Area, or Panmunjom, which lies in the middle of the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South.

A Pentagon spokesman said on Tuesday that the Defense Department could not verify the comments that North Korea said had been made by Private King.

“We remain focused on his safe return,” said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Martin J. Meiners. “The department’s priority is to bring Private King home, and that we are working through all available channels to achieve that outcome.”

Until now, North Korea had kept mum on Private King’s case.

In the past, the North had accepted American soldiers who had deserted and arrived in the country as political defectors, allowing them to live there and even start a family. But civilian Americans accused of illegal entry were held in detention and sometimes released and expelled, or prosecuted and sentenced to hard labor.

North Korea has used such American soldiers as propaganda tools against the United States. In the cases of some civilian Americans accused of illegal entry, it has used them as bargaining chips in negotiations with Washington, with which it has no formal diplomatic ties.

Private King, 23, had been assigned to South Korea as a member of the First Brigade Combat Team, First Armored Division. After he was released in July from a South Korean detention center, where he had spent time on assault charges, he was escorted by U.S. military personnel to Incheon International Airport outside Seoul on July 17 to board a plane bound to the United States, where he was expected to face additional disciplinary action.

He never boarded the plane. Instead, he took a tour bus to Panmunjom the next day.

Helene Cooper contributed reporting from Washington.