Travis King
American soldier who defected to North Korea
Travis Travale King (born February 15, 2000) is a former United States Army soldier known for crossing over the Military Demarcation Line in the Joint Security Area (JSA) into North Korea on July 18, 2023, while on a civilian tour of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). He was 23 years old at the time of his crossing into North Korea.
King was facing dishonorable discharge and additional disciplinary actions from the United States Army due to legal charges in South Korea, where he was stationed at the time of crossing, as well as other cases of misconduct, insubordination, assault, attempted escape from U.S. military custody, and possession of child pornography, which may have prompted his crossing. However, North Korean authorities asserted that King, who is black, fled after becoming "disillusioned with the inequality of American society and racial discrimination in its Army".
King was detained by North Korea on July 18, 2023, and was released on September 27, 2023, back to U.S. authorities. King was the first known detention of a U.S. national by North Korea since Bruce Byron Lowrance in November 2018.
Early life
King was born in 1999 or 2000 to father Thomas King and mother Claudine Gates. He grew up in Racine, Wisconsin, and attended Washington Park High School, graduating in 2020.
Military career
King enlisted in the United States Army in January 2021.
On September 25, 2022, King punched a South Korean man in the face multiple times at a nightclub in Seoul.
“Travis King” enters the record as american soldier who defected to North Korea. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Travis, King and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q120742332. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2000, 2023, 2018 and 1999.
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This entry incorporates text from “Travis King” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.