By alonso calatrava
Jul 25, 2023, 12:31 PM EDT
The vice commander of the Command of the United Nations Organization (UN), Andrew Harrison, confirmed on Tuesday that talks have already begun between the coalition and North Korea on behalf of the United States soldier who entered their territory without permission.
The man, who was identified as 23-year-old Private 2nd Class Travis T. King, is in the custody of North Korean authorities. US media reported Tuesday that Private King was in the process of being returned to the United States as a disciplinary measure tied to assault charges.
According to Korean news agencies, the US soldier who is being held in North Korea after trespassing this week spent 48 days in a South Korean prison workshop for failing to pay a fine he was given in February for kicking and damaging a police unit in Seoul.
“We started a discussion with the Korean People’s Army (KPA) through the usual channels, but I can’t say anything more to spoil that process,” Harrison told a news conference in Seoul.
King’s Offenses
Anonymous sources with knowledge of King’s legal situation explained to the Yonhap news agency that after being fined about $3,900 for damaging the door of the car of a police patrol that stopped him last February, the soldier did not pay the fine.
For this reason, a court decided that King had to enter a prison workshop, where he had to work to pay the fine of about 100,000 won per day worked. The soldier finally spent 48 days, from May 24 to July 10, admitted to a Cheonan prison, 85 kilometers south of Seoul.
Other sources, Travis T. King also that he was involved in an alleged assault at a nightclub in September of last year, also in the South Korean capital, but that the alleged victim did not file a charge against him.
With information from EFE
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