Did North Korea Have Prior Knowledge of Defection of U.S. Army Soldier?
The Messenger got access to the Serious Incident Report (SIR) that was filed for the defection of PV2 Travis King. It shows that how the United Nations Command vets people taking the DMZ tours is clearly broken:
When King arrived for his tour of the demilitarized zone the following day, he checked in with a U.S. government identification card. The tour company submitted the list of participants in the tour to the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission, the international body which supervises the armistice between the two Koreas. King had been placed on an international hold by U.S. and South Korean authorities owing to his disciplinary exhibits, and it’s not clear why he was not flagged prior to taking the tour.
United Nations Command approved the manifest submitted to them by Hana Tours ITC.
The Messenger
What is most interesting from this report is apparently the North Koreans had a van waiting for King that he ran into after he crossed the border:
The tour began around 2:30 p.m. at Camp Boniface, a military post of the United Nations Command, just south of the southern boundary of the Korean Demilitarized Zone, the report details. Roughly an hour later at 3:30 p.m., King walked away from his group and sprinted through a space between U.S. and South Korean troops.
Security Forces chased King as he ran to the far end of what’s known as conference row, the bright blue buildings in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. The Army private then ran north to Panmungak.
The report says King ran to the back of a Korean People’s Army building where he entered a van and was driven out of the area by North Korean troops. (……..)
A U.S. military official familiar with the investigation told The Messenger the U.S. military is looking into the possibility that the North Koreans had prior knowledge of his intention to cross the border. The U.S. military official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss ongoing investigations.
You can read more at the link, but King likely had this defection planned out. However, I don’t think he was smart enough to find a way to contact the North Koreans to actually coordinate his defection. It will be interesting to see what the investigation determines.
Did King have a Yobo who was secretly a North Korean agent who coordinated all this? Or is that too 1982.
I don’t think nK would waste a honey trap on a Cav Scout Private….
Flyingsword, with how far the US government will bend over to retrieve idiot civilians from NK, is it really a stretch to think NK wouldn’t get a hard on for US servicemen?
Even if the US isn’t interested in retrieving the idiot, NK can still jack off to parading around a captive American soldier much in the same why they feel sexual ecstasy when showing off the USS Pueblo.
Flyingsword- I’m making reference to the 1982 PFC White incident, the North Korean Agent Yobo was the urban legend going around Area 1 during my first tour in the mid 80’s.