Travis King, U.S. soldier who crossed into North Korea, expected to plead guilty
Travis King, the American soldier who crossed into North Korea on foot from South Korea in July 2023, is expected to plead guilty to five of the 14 offenses the U.S. Army charged him with last year, including desertion and assault on a noncommissioned officer, according to King's attorney.
"U.S. Army Private Travis King will take responsibility for his conduct and enter a guilty plea," his attorney, Franklin Rosenblatt, said in a statement. King will plead not guilty to the remaining offenses, which the Army will withdraw and dismiss, Rosenblatt said.
The guilty plea is set to be entered on Sept. 20 at a general court-martial, where King will explain what he did, answer a military judge's questions and be sentenced, Rosenblatt said.
"Travis is grateful to his friends and family who have supported him, and to all outside of his circle who did not pre-judge his case based on the initial allegations," Rosenblatt said.
The Army confirmed to CBS News that King is expected to plead guilty, but did not elaborate on which charges.
"Pvt. King has agreed to plead guilty, however further details are not releasable at this time as the guilty plea is subject to the acceptance by the military judge," Michelle McCaskill, a spokesperson for the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel, said in a statement. "If Pvt. King's guilty plea is accepted, the judge will sentence King pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement. If the judge does not accept the guilty plea, the judge can rule that the case be litigated in a contested court-martial."
King will remain in pretrial confinement, McCaskill said.
After King crossed into North Korea, the totalitarian state's tightly controlled media said he had confessed to entering the country illegally and said it would be expelling him. He was sent across North Korea's border into China, where he was transferred to U.S. custody in Sept. 2023.
U.S. officials at the time said no concessions were made by Washington to secure King's release.
At a briefing after King's release, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that while he didn't have specific information about King's treatment in North Korean custody, it was likely that King was interrogated. "That would be consistent with past DPRK practice with respect to detainees," he said.
King was subsequently charged by the Army with several crimes, including desertion, assaulting other soldiers and officers, and soliciting and possessing child pornography, according to documents obtained by CBS News.
"I love my son unconditionally and am extremely concerned about his mental health. As his mother, I ask that my son be afforded the presumption of innocence," King's mother, Claudine Gates, said in a statement to CBS News last year. "The man I raised, the man I dropped off at boot camp, the man who spent the holidays with me before deploying did not drink. A mother knows her son, and I believe something happened to mine while he was deployed."