North Korea said on Wednesday that a US soldier who crossed into the country last month is seeking refuge due to “inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination in the US Army,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. According to an investigation by the country’s relevant organ, Travis King, a private 2nd class of the US Army in South Korea, admitted that he “illegally intruded” into the territory of the DPRK, KCNA said.

DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

King came to be “kept under control” by soldiers of the Korean People’s Army on duty as he deliberately intruded into the area of the DPRK side between the room for the DPRK-US military contacts and the rest room of security officers along the Military Demarcation Line, the agency said.

It marked Pyongyang’s first public acknowledgement of King’s crossing of the Military Demarcation Line from South Korea into North Korea during a civilian tour to the Joint Security Area on July 18.

During the investigation, King confessed that he had decided to come over to the DPRK as he “harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination” within the US Army. “He also expressed his willingness to seek refugee in the DPRK or a third country, saying that he was disillusioned at the unequal American society,” the KCNA said, adding that the investigation will continue.

The US-led UN Command, which oversees activities in the Demilitarized Zone, earlier said it is working with its North Korean counterparts to resolve the incident but has declined to provide details, according to the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency

Source: Kuwait News Agency