An Army private who fled to North Korea before being returned home to the United States last month has been detained by the U.S. military.

An Army private who fled to North Korea before being returned home to the United States last month has been detained by the U.S. military, two officials said Thursday night, and is facing charges including desertion and possessing sexual images of a child.

  • burchalka
    15•1 year ago

    Isn’t this the dude that ran away to North Korea to escape discipline action, and then was passed to China by the Koreans?

    • FuglyDuckEnglish
      25•1 year ago

      Yes. the disciplinary charges were specifically for the CSAM mentioned in the lede. Which is why he ran. Which… how… useless… do you have to be for NK to not want you to defect?

      • Flying Squid
        23•1 year ago

        Not to bring this into it, but I would not be surprised if the ethnostate of North Korea didn’t want a black person living there. I’m guessing obviously, but I think that would be a factor.

        After all-

        Forced abortions are particularly common with North Korean women who became pregnant in China and were forcibly repatriated to North Korea.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_North_Korea

        If they don’t want half-Chinese babies growing up in North Korea, I’m guessing a black guy isn’t going to be especially welcome.

        • FuglyDuckEnglish
          12•1 year ago

          The irony here, is that his justification for asylum was… his commanders were racist.

        • @[email protected]
          4•1 year ago

          They like Dennis Rodman, but only for the novelty factor of seeing a black man they’ve been told is a famous basketball player.

    • @SalamendaciousOP
      9•1 year ago

      From the article:

      His release from North Korea was aided by Swedish officials who took King to the Chinese border, where he was met by U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, the Swedish ambassador to China and at least one U.S. Defense Department official. He was then flown to a U.S. military base in South Korea before heading to the U.S.