American soldier defects to North Korea over inequality - Pyongyang

North Korea has confirmed for the first time that it is holding American soldier Travis King, saying he crossed the border last month to escape racism and mistreatment in the US military and society.

A private second class with a chequered disciplinary record, King was due to fly back to America in July but instead slipped out of South Korea's main airport, joined a tourist trip to the Demilitarised Zone separating the North and South, and ran across the border into the North.

Following a North Korean investigation, King "admitted that he illegally intruded", Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The United States had previously said that King crossed the border "willfully and without authorisation".

While King is not the first US soldier to cross into North Korea, he is the first in many decades to do so.

Who is Private Travis King?

Private Travis King, who joined the US Army in January 2021, is a cavalry scout with the Korean Rotational Force, which is part of the US security commitment to South Korea.

He was assigned to an element of the US 1st Armored Division and was now administratively attached to a unit in 4th Infantry Division, a US army spokesperson said.

His record includes routine awards such as the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Defense Service Medal and Overseas Service Ribbon.

His family is from the city of Racine in the US state of Wisconsin.

Why did he cross to North Korea and where is he now?

King's motivation and exact location remain unconfirmed.

He "harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the US Army" and wanted to stay in the North or a third country because he was "disillusioned at the unequal American society," according to North Korean state news agency KCNA.

KCNA said he was held by the North Korean army after he crossed, adding that a government investigation was still ongoing.

KCNA did not provide any details about King's health or location, or about what they planned to do with him.

The Pentagon on Tuesday said that it could not verify King's alleged comments, but that it was working through all channels to bring him home.

King's uncle, Myron Gates, told ABC News in August that his nephew, who is Black, had experienced racism during his military deployment, and after he spent time in a South Korean jail, he did not sound like himself.

Another uncle, Carl Gates, told the Daily Beast news website that his nephew had been "breaking down" after the death of a 7-year-old cousin this year.

How did he get to the border?

King had served nearly two months in detention in South Korea and was being escorted to Seoul's Incheon International Airport to fly home and face probable disciplinary action. But he never made it to his plane.

He had passed alone through security to his gate at the airport, where he told American Airlines staff that he lost his passport, an airport official told Reuters news agency.

Escorted by an airline worker with the approval of a South Korean justice ministry official, King left the boarding zone and was seen exiting through a departure gate.

The next day, King joined a bus tour of the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice.

What happened at the border?

Roughly 24 hours after leaving the airport, he sprinted into North Korea while touring the Joint Security Area, which sits astride the border.

Sarah Leslie, a tourist from New Zealand who was on the tour with King, said she saw him suddenly run across the border as US and South Korean troops tried to stop him.

"I probably only saw him running for like a few seconds and that's all it would have taken to get across the border," she said.

What disciplinary action was he facing?

Two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had been due to face US military disciplinary action, without saying what the action was linked to.

A South Korean court ruling said King pleaded guilty to assault and destruction of public goods stemming from an incident in October. On February 8, the Seoul Western District Court fined him 5 million won ($4,000).

He faced two allegations of assault, and pleaded guilty to one instance of assault and destroying public property for damaging a police car during a profanity-laced tirade against Koreans, according to court documents.

King spent time in a South Korean prison, however, in lieu of paying the fine.

Is this the first border-crossing case to North Korea involving an American soldier?

King is not the first American soldier to cross into the North Korean territory.

A US private first class soldier named James Joseph Dresnok also crossed into North Korea in a closely similar manner in 1962 following the Korean War. Dresnok was previously stationed in South Korea.

At the time of his defection, Dresnok was known to have joined three other known American defectors in North Korea, including Charles Robert Jenkins, who spent decades there before being allowed to leave for Japan.

Dresnok died in North Korea in 2016, according to his North Korean family. Jenkins, who faced a US court martial in Japan in 2004, died in the Japanese prefecture of Niigita in 2017.

What's the impact of King's case to the US-North Korean relations

The United States and North Korea have no formal diplomatic ties, although contact have been more frequent in recent years through third party negotiators.

The United Nations Command, which oversees the armistice that ended fighting in the Korean War, confirmed last month it had begun a conversation with North Korea over King.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the time that while contact had been made with the North Koreans, Washington still had no idea where King was or in what condition.

North Korea's first official comment on King was pure propaganda, said Soo Kim, policy practice area lead at LMI Consulting and a former CIA analyst.

"King's crossing into North Korea provided the Kim regime an opportunity in several ways, the first of which is, of course, the potential for negotiations with the US over King's release," she told AFP news agency, adding that Pyongyang were "tough negotiators", so it would not be easy for Washington to secure his release.

Pyongyang has a long history of detaining Americans and using them as bargaining chips in bilateral negotiations.

"It's also an opportunity for the regime propaganda to do its thing -- to spin the situation in such a way as to criticise the US and express Pyongyang's deep-rooted hostility towards Washington," she added.