U.S. Army report suggests G.I.’s JSA dash was premeditated

North Korea’s military has not responded to the Pentagon’s queries about an American soldier who crossed into the North on Tuesday, but a leaked U.S. military report included details suggesting that he had planned his defection ahead of time.

South Korean soldiers assigned to the United Nations Command stand guard at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the Joint Security Area (JSA) in Paju, Gyeonggi, on Feb. 7. [YONHAP]

North Korea’s military has not responded to the Pentagon’s queries about an American soldier who entered the North earlier this week, according to the U.S. State Department.

But a U.S. military report leaked on Wednesday included details suggesting that the soldier, identified as Private 2nd Class Travis King, had planned ahead of time before crossing the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) at the Joint Security Area (JSA) on Tuesday.

“Yesterday, the Pentagon reached out to counterparts in the Korean People’s Army,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said during a Wednesday press briefing, referring to the North Korean military by its official name.

“My understanding is that those communications have not yet been answered,” he added.

Earlier, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that a U.S. service member “willfully and without authorization” crossed the MDL while on a tour of the JSA.

Miller told reporters that the United States has “a number of channels through which we can send messages to the DPRK,” referring to North Korea by the acronym for its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

While declining to offer details about communications sent through these channels, the spokesman said the U.S. government is working with the United Nations to “ascertain information about the wellbeing and whereabouts of Private King.”

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre also said at a Wednesday press briefing that the United States “will continue to actively work to ensure the safety and return of Private King,” and that the U.S. government is conducting outreach through Sweden and South Korea to contact the North.

Sweden acts as the protecting power for the United States in the North, given the absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

While the North has not issued a public statement on King’s apparent defection, an internal U.S. Army report seen by online media outlet The Messenger offered more details about how he managed to join a tour to the JSA, which requires pre-entry authorization by the United Nations Command, as well as his border crossing in the area.

An official at the United Nations Command (UNC) on Thursday confirmed the veracity of the sequence of events detailed in the report.

The U.S. Army document, known as a “serious incident report” in the U.S. Defense Department, said King was barred from leaving South Korea for three disciplinary incidents that occurred in September and October during his tour of duty in the country.

Two of the incidents have already been identified through South Korean court documents, which show King was investigated on suspicion of committing assault against a Korean national on Sept. 25 and also fined 5 million won ($3,940) for repeatedly kicking and damaging a back door of a police patrol vehicle in Seoul on Oct. 8.

According to the U.S. Army document seen by The Messenger, King “was placed in pretrial confinement and then a Korean [Status of Forces Agreement] confinement facility” and “served 50 days of hard labor at a Korean facility” before his release on July 10.

But before his two-month detention, he booked two tours to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) dividing the Korean Peninsula that were scheduled to take place on different dates, according to the report.

Although he missed the first tour, he was able to confirm his reservation for the second one through Hana Tours ITC shortly after he was released from confinement, the report said.

King was handed back to the U.S. military upon his release and scheduled to return to the United States on Monday, when U.S. and South Korean military escorts accompanied him to Incheon International Airport and observed him going through customs around 4:30 p.m.

The report said King texted his U.S. escort, an army staff sergeant, to say he had arrived at the departure gate for American Airlines flight 280 to Dallas, Texas, which was scheduled to take off at 5:40 p.m. local time in Korea, according to the report.

But after soldiers at Fort Bliss in Texas told King’s chain of command at noon on Tuesday that he had not arrived and was not responding to texts or phone calls, USFK leaders contacted South Korean customs and discovered the army private never boarded his flight, the report said.

The U.S. Army document did not detail how King left the boarding area, but local media reported that he told an American Airlines employee that he had lost his passport and was then guided out of customs.

King’s movements between Monday and Tuesday remain unclear, but the report said he managed to check into his DMZ tour on Tuesday with his U.S. government identification card.

The report said the list of visitors submitted by Hana Tours ITC was approved by the UNC Military Armistice Commission, which manages the South Korean side of the JSA and supervises the armistice between the Koreas.

A South Korean soldier, left, and a U.S. soldier, right, face the grey Panmungak pavilion on the North Korean side of the Joint Security Area (JSA) on Oct. 4. The blue huts on either side are part of a complex, known as conference row, that straddles the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), marked by the grey concrete slab in front of the soldiers. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

At 3:30 p.m., about an hour into the tour, King walked away from his group as they were touring the truce village of Panmunjom and ran through a space between U.S. and South Korean soldiers on guard, according to the report.

The report said that UNC security chased King up to the end of conference row, which refers to the blue huts straddling the ground-level concrete boundary that delineates the MDL, but the army private continued running north to Panmungak, the grey pavilion that dominates the North Korean side of the truce village.

King then ran to the back of another North Korean military building, where he entered a van and was driven out of the area by North Korean soldiers.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]