Travis King, the U.S. soldier who crossed into North Korea from South Korea earlier this year, has been 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.
King faces eight total charges, which also include making false statements and disobeying superior officers.
“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. “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.”
King, a Private 2nd Class in the U.S. Army, entered North Korea on foot in July while he was on a guided tour of the South Korean border village of Panmunjom, which he joined after absconding from an airport in Seoul, where he was supposed to have boarded a flight back to the U.S.
He was later deported from North Korea and returned to U.S. custody last month.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.
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