When it comes to making bad decisions, voluntarily sneaking into North Korea might be a hard one to top, which is why Army Secretary Christine Wormuth is scared about what could and will happen to Pvt. Travis King.
According to Wormuth, the American soldier who did that “may not have been thinking clearly,” which might be the understatement of the century. Everything about this story is bizarre, and military leaders are trying to assess how and why it happened.
King was headed back to the U.S. after doing time in a South Korean prison for assault. It’s one of several criminal marks on his record, and while part of a tour group near the DMZ, King bolted from the group and crossed into North Korea. There has been no contact between American officials and Pyongyang since this went down.
Wormuth was speaking at the Aspen Security Forum Thursday when she was asked about the situation. “He is a young soldier, he was facing consequences. I imagine he had a lot of negative feelings. He may not have been thinking clearly, frankly, but we just don’t know.”
One well-known fact is that Americans held captive in North Korea are essentially chess pieces, and they are treated horrifically in most cases. In 2017, college student Otto Warmbier was in critical condition when North Korea released him following negotiations with President Trump. Warmbier died six days later after returning to the United States.
The Army Secretary may have had that on her mind when she said this at the forum. “What we want to do is get that soldier back into our custody. I worry about him, frankly. It makes me very, very concerned that Pvt. King is in the hands of the North Korean authorities. I worry about how they may treat him.”
Word out of the White House is Joe Biden’s team has tried to get information, but White House deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton told the media Thursday, “I can tell you this morning we’ve now reached out through multiple channels to the KPA to try to ascertain that information and to get closer to an answer.”
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