They’ve already got their meager propaganda value from him, which is to say “Behold this American, fleeing the brutal racism and injustice in his country.” There’s not much point in keeping him, and expelling him is probably their easiest option.
I’m actually rather sorry for him at this point. How often does North Korea of all places reject an American ripe exploitation value, whether on trumped up criminal charges or as a useful idiot?
Can’t possibly be good for his self-esteem. Hopefully the circumstances of his confinement weren’t too rough on top of that (and there may yet be more to come in the US).
No NK clam of a trial:
Report on Final Findings of Investigation into American Solider
Why they did this is hard to say now. Maybe Xi Jinping privately let it be known that he didn’t like the effect on American public opinion of this being drawn out. Or maybe the North Koreans think Private King’s upcoming statements, perhaps concerning the allegedly racist U.S. Army, will embarrass the U.S. government. Or maybe Kim Jun Un believes in being unpredictable.
I had not known about the KCNA website. Thank you.
[aside]
I clicked on another article on that page. It’s a fine piece of Lenin- or Stalin-esque Communist writing that you all might ejoy: Big Efforts Paid to Harvesting and Threshing in Kangwon Province | KCNA Watch.
I am sure the peasants toiling in the fields appreciated all the “political work” done by “Officials of agricultural guidance organs at all levels”.
They may have had him in a Potemkin Village this whole time and he will report on how great things are there.
Sheesh. When he jumped, I thought “dude, your life has GOT to suck HARD for North Korea to look like a good bet”. Now I’m thinking “how hopeless are you when even North Korea won’t take you?”
Yep. Is it selfish of me to feel cheated out of seeing the handover? Well, as it is, the US authorities lost no time in getting him back to a military base in the contiguous US. It will be interesting, also, to see the charge sheet for the impending court-martial.
Of course there was no trial. Show trials are just that–for show. No show, no trial. Also, yep, he was of incredibly low propaganda value and thus a cover story from the Norks for the Norks and they off-loaded a problem to the US.
When you get thrown out of a Seoul hooker bar, a South Korean prison, the US Army, and North Korea, well … seems like the only place that might take you in is the Moon, and maybe your Mom’s house. If you promise to stay in the basement.
Do we have to take him back?
I’m surprised North Korea gave him back for nothing. Even if they didn’t want to pay for his continued detention, I would’ve expected them to threaten to execute him by a certain date, as to extract ransom from his family or the US government.
I honestly thought he would have some propaganda value as someone who could speak out against the US system of racism and economic exploitation. But then maybe he wasn’t charismatic enough for that.
Sorry to say, apparently so.
“though he is a moron, he is one of ours” (cookies for the first person to ID the quote)
Right, if he wasn’t even qualified for the bare minimum of propagandist duties, wouldn’t the next logical move for North Korea be the nuclear (ha!) option of “hey, send us $10 million by [somewhat nearby date] or it’s lights out for Private King here!”
North Korean usually doesn’t execute foreign prisoners, they have value for propaganda purposes. Otto Warmbier aside (and no one really knows what happened there), most foreign prisoners aren’t too badly physically abused because they’ll be going home at some point. Most of 'em - there are always exceptions.
Given that they extensively interrogate such prisoners (reportedly in sessions of 15-16 hours or more - psychological abuse is pretty common) they probably figured out pretty quickly King’s family doesn’t have a lot of money nor the means to cough up a substantial ransom. The US government let him be a prisoner in another country and was transporting him home for disciplinary proceedings as a prelude to kicking him out of the military so maybe they figured the US government wouldn’t be terribly willing to pay a ransom either.
The North Koreans probably figured out pretty quick this guy was a loser and decided his largest worth to them would be a few international brownie points for giving him back to the US, and it rids them of someone somewhere between worthless and a problem (he has a history of violence, after all).
Or perhaps not cooperative enough. If King has a problem with authority (and he might or might not, I don’t know) then he is not going to do well in an authoritarian system.
That only works if someone is willing and able to pay the ransom.
Some (perhaps unintentionally) scathing commentary on Mr. King from the New York Times, on why North Korea let him go (or should that be ‘didn’t let him stay’?):
Why did the North expel Pvt. Travis T. King, rather than use him for its own purposes? Analysts say he was probably considered more of a burden than an asset.
That’s gotta be hard to live down, but, as one North Korean defector posits, King’s minimal or nonexistent value to North Korea might say as much or more about their own underlying racism than anything to do with King himself:
“To the North Korean propagandists, the United States is a country dominated by white people, and a Black person is not a representative American face,” Mr. Kim said. “They may have decided that his usefulness as a propaganda tool was limited.”
Mr. Kim also noted that in North Korea, where the government has long touted a supposed racial “purity,” anti-Black racism is even stronger than anti-white racism
I doubt there will be a court martial. AWOL rarely gets to that point. He will most likely just be separated.
I think that had King gone to the US as he was ordered in the first place, he would have simply been administratively separated. Thanks to his high-profile stupidity, though, I think there will be a court-martial and, like Jenkins, he’ll receive a non-custodial sentence to include a derogatory discharge, likely Bad Conduct.
This thought did cross my mind as a potential factor when he ran across the border. It’s not limited to the North, either. Plenty of this sort of attitude in the South as well.
Ordinarily I think that would hold true. But he did a bit more than just go AWOL.
True.
OTOH, if I was DoD I’d as soon make the rest of King’s life the smallest media event possible. Don’t do a cover-up, but within the normal range of what you do for stupid E-2s being thrown out for being stupid E-2s, do the minimum and call it a day. His Mom probably would prefer that too.
About the worst case from DoD’s perspective is if some partisan racial or political propaganda group decides to make a cause celebre of this. Or if King tries to leverage his 15 minutes of fame into … something.
Of course if evidence merges that he was badly treated by the NKs, that ups the ante in the US-NK relations dynamic. But as between King, DoD, and the American public, IMO less is better. And IMO DoD will see it that way too.