What life in North Korea holds for US soldier Travis King after defecting
North Korea, the highly isolated, totalitarian Asian nation, is home to certain unusual superlatives — but, for many inside its borders, living in luxury is far from them.
And what reality holds in store for Travis King — the 23-year-old US soldier who defected to North Korea on Tuesday by running across the border while shouting “ha ha ha!” during a tour of the area — is unclear, but it certainly won’t be glamorous.
In terms of its strange records, the hermit kingdom — which borders China, Russia, and South Korea with a population of 26 million — is home to the 105-story Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang.
That’s the country’s tallest building and has reportedly never hosted a single guest.
It’s also one of the world’s tallest unoccupied buildings and, despite construction beginning in 1987, it’s yet to reach completion.
Even more bizarre, North Korea is also home to the world’s largest stadium.
The 1989-built May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, which received an update in 2014, fits a staggering 150,000 people within a design modeled off a magnolia blossom.
Pyongyang is also home to its own Arch of Triumph — similar to the iconic one frequently photographed in Paris — that’s the second-tallest on Earth behind Monumento a la Revolución in Mexico City.
Hollow appearances aside, it all begs the question as to whether King understands what he’s gotten himself into.
North Korea has long been equated with a starvation crisis.
Last month, in secret communications with the BBC, three North Koreans recounted the horrors of watching their neighbors starve to death in a famine that may be worse than that of the 1990s, which killed 3 million residents.
COVID-19 isolation measures in North Korea meant sealing its borders with Russia and China, which has impacted Chinese imports of grain, fertilizer and machinery.
King is believed to be detained by North Korean armed forces, with North Korea also known for its long-term detentions of American citizens.
A recent, and tragic, example: 22-year-old University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier, who served 18 months behind bars there for alleged anti-state acts before being returned home in 2017 in a coma.
Warmbier, who confessed to trying to steal a political banner while on a tour in North Korea in 2015, died a week after returning to the US.
Life in North Korea is also unsafe in other ways.
In 2014 and regarding residential property, officials made a rare apology for the collapse of an under-construction, 23-story apartment building in Pyongyang — apparently caused by improper work and irresponsible supervision.
The building was believed to house approximately 100 families, meaning a high death toll.
For the North Korean elite, however, life is a far cry from tragedy.
In 2022, North Korea’s most known propaganda-driven TV anchor Ri Chun Hireceived the gift of a luxurious home in Pyongyang from the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, for her loyalty to his Workers’ Party and the state.
Details of the home aren’t clear, but images of her publicized tour of the property show a seemingly newly constructed building whose levels are connected by a wide staircase.
In reality, North Koreans in rural areas live in poverty.
King, who’s in the Army, had previously spent time in US military detention in South Korea, and had faced allegations of assault and damaging a police vehicle.
King, who was also reportedly “breaking down” over the death of a 6-year-old family member, was set to return to America on Tuesday.
