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News Article :-
Travis T. King, the American soldier who crossed into North Korea on July 18, was released into U.S. custody on Wednesday after weeks of diplomacy mediated by the Swedish government, American officials said.
Private King was to be reunited with his family in the United States and given physical and mental health support after being held by the North Koreans for 70 days.
“U.S. officials have secured the return of Pvt. Travis King from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said in a statement.
Private King’s first stop after leaving North Korea was China, where U.S. officials were waiting for him, according to senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the transfer.
Private King was then put on a plane and flown to a U.S. military facility in South Korea, an American official said.
The official said Private King would be immediately transferred to a military plane for a flight to a U.S. medical facility in San Antonio, where he would undergo examinations. Private King is expected to arrive in Texas late Wednesday or early Thursday.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss flight details, said that the Swedish authorities had determined that Private King was healthy enough to be flown directly back to the United States without a medical examination at U.S. military facilities in South Korea or Japan.
His release came after North Korean officials decided to expel him, saying that they had found him guilty of “illegally intruding” into their territory, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. The state news agency said that Private King had confessed to illegally entering North Korea because, it said, he “harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army and was disillusioned about the unequal U.S. society.”
A senior administration official said President Biden, who had been briefed on the efforts to secure Private King’s release, made no concessions to North Korea.
“The answer is simple,” the official said. “There were none. Full stop.”
Private King, 23, had been assigned to South Korea as a member of the First Brigade Combat Team, First Armored Division. After being released in July from a South Korean detention center, where he had spent time on assault charges, he was escorted by U.S. military personnel to Incheon International Airport outside Seoul to board a plane to the United States, where he was expected to face additional disciplinary action.
He never boarded the plane. Instead, he fled to the North through the Demilitarized Zone, which separates North and South Korea, by taking a bus the next day to the border village of Panmunjom, which lies inside the DMZ and allows tourists to visit
The soldier “willfully and without authorization crossed the Military Dema