US player Travis King sentenced for defecting to North Korea | US Army

A US soldier who defected to North Korea last year has been sentenced to 12 months in prison.

Attorney Franklin Rosenblatt said Friday that the trooper was released because of good behavior and time served.

Travis King faces 14 charges in connection with his escape from South Korea across the border into the North during a tour of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the Korean Peninsula in July last year.

As part of a plea deal accepted Friday by a military judge, he pleaded guilty to five charges — desertion, assault on a non-commissioned officer and three counts of disobeying an officer.

In July 2023, King was stationed in South Korea and had to fly back to Texas to face disciplinary hearings after a drunken bar fight and a stint in a South Korean jail.

Instead, he left a Seoul-area airport, joined a DMZ tour and slipped into the fortified border, where he was detained by authorities from the communist North.

Pyongyang had said King had returned to North Korea to escape “mistreatment and racial discrimination in the US military”.

But after completing its investigation, North Korea decided to “deport” King in September for illegally infiltrating its territory.

Attorney Rosenblatt said in a statement Friday: “The judge, under the terms of the plea agreement, sentenced Travis to one year in prison, a reduction in rank to private (E-1), forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and a dishonorable discharge.

“With time already served and credit for good behavior, Travis is now free and will return home,” the statement said.

“Travis King faced significant challenges throughout his life, including a difficult upbringing, exposure to criminal environments and struggles with mental health,” Rosenblatt said. “All of these factors compounded the hardships he faced in the military.”

In a statement, the U.S. Army’s Office of Special Counsel for Special Investigations confirmed King’s guilty plea as part of a plea deal and said “pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement, all other charges and specifications were dismissed.”

“Today’s decision by the court-martial is a fair and just decision that reflects the seriousness of the crimes committed by Private King,” prosecutor Major Alison Montgomery said in the statement.