Photo shows US soldier Travis King blending in with tourists moments before he defected to North Korea
US soldier Travis King was photographed blending in with a tour group at the Demilitarized Zone moments before he defected to North Korea on Tuesday.
In the photo, the 23-year-old could be seen wearing a navy shirt and black tour hat with his back to the camera as he stood looking out across the DMZ among a group of tourists, as uniformed soldiers stood guard nearby.
The photo was snapped by Sarah Leslie, a tourist from New Zealand who, along with King, was part of a 43-person tour group visiting the infamous border crossing.
Leslie said the group departed from Seoul on an early morning bus, and that she’d noticed King appeared to be traveling alone and hadn’t talked to anyone on the tour throughout the day.
At one point, she said, King purchased a DMZ hat at the gift shop.
The tour brought visitors to the border’s Joint Security Area, where tourists were allowed to step on North Korean soil inside a building jointly held with South Korea.
Leslie said group members were required to submit their passports and secure permits ahead of time in order to partake.
Shortly after leaving the building, Leslie said, the group was standing around taking photos when King started running “really fast” toward the border.
“I assumed initially he had a mate filming him in some kind of really stupid prank or stunt, like a TikTok, the most stupid thing you could do,” she told the Associated Press.
“But then I heard one of the soldiers shout, ‘Get that guy.'”
Before the soldiers could respond, King had made it across and was taken into North Korean custody.
A private with the Army’s 1st Armored Division, King had just been released after serving two months in a South Korean prison on assault charges.
His family said he’d recently begun having a mental breakdown following the death of a beloved 6-year-old cousin while he was stationed in South Korea.
“When my son was on life support, and when my son passed away … Travis started [being] reckless [and] crazy when he knew my son was about to die,” his uncle, Carl Gates, told the Daily Beast.
“Because he couldn’t be here. He was in the Army, overseas,” Gates said.
“I know it’s related to what he did.”
King was reportedly laughing out loud when as he sprinted between two buildings and across the border.
“To our right, we hear a loud HA-HA-HA and one guy from OUR GROUP that has been with us all day- runs in between two of the buildings and over to the other side!!” Mikaela Johansson, a tourist from Sweden on the tour, wrote on Facebook.
“It took everybody a second to react and grasp what had actually happened, then we were ordered into and through Freedom House and running back to our military bus.”