US Military Won’t Declare Private Travis King a ‘Deserter’ – Despite His Decision to Flee to North Korea

Private Travis King, the American soldier who made a mad dash into North Korea last month, has not been classified as a deserter by the U.S. Army, despite the fact that his actions appear to fit the military’s criteria for desertion. 

U.S. officials say King crossed the demarcation line and entered North Korea “willfully” on July 18, after skipping out on his scheduled flight back to Fort Bliss, Texas. He had been deemed by U.S. Forces Korea to be “an embarrassment to the United States,” according to documents obtained by The Messenger.

Since then, King’s official status in the eyes of the U.S. Army has been “absent without official leave,” or what is more commonly known as AWOL. According to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, “AWOL” is considered a temporary and not necessarily intentional absence, while “desertion” is defined as follows: 

“Any member of the armed forces who…without authority goes or remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to remain away therefrom permanently.”

Defense Department instructions issued in October 2021 mandate that unit commanders report a service member as a deserter if he or she is “absent for 30 consecutive days” or if the “facts and circumstances, regardless of its length, show that the Service member may have committed the offense of desertion.” 

King would appear to have done more than enough to meet these criteria, having passed the 30-day mark, and given Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s public assessment in July that King had “willfully and without authorization” crossed into North Korea. An Army “summary of incident” report obtained by The Messenger went further, quoting a U.S. Forces in Korea statement that said “U.S. Subject defected to North Korea.” 

But two days after King’s crossing, asked whether Private King was a defector, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh demurred. 

“That’s something that the investigation will certainly glean,” Singh said. “That’s not something – a characterization that we’re using right now.” 

And the Army says reclassifying King as a “deserter” isn’t in the cards. 

“At this time, the Army has no plans to change Private King’s duty status; he remains in an absent-without-leave status,” Bryce Dubee, an Army spokesperson at the Pentagon, told The Messenger. “Our primary focus remains the safe return of Pvt. King to the United States.”

AWOL v. deserter: Why it matters

Desertion is considered the most serious of the military’s so-called “absentee offenses.” As an administrative matter, the status change from AWOL to deserter — a process known as being “dropped from the rolls” — involves notifying a small U.S. Army office at Fort Knox in Kentucky called the U.S. Army Deserter Information Point. An arrest warrant with the service member’s information is then entered into the National Criminal Information Center at the FBI so that other law enforcement agencies can be notified.

Clearly the FBI cannot pursue Private King at the moment, given the absence of any diplomatic relations with North Korea; more important in his case are the legal implications should he return to the U.S. 

As a deserter, King would come home as effectively a wanted man. 

There are different degrees of punishment for cases of AWOL and desertion, depending on the length of absence, the service members’ mindsets and how they ultimately return - or are found. Penalties for both typically include a loss of pay and rank, dishonorable discharge, and depending on the circumstances of their case, prison sentences can range from a few months for AWOL cases to years in prison for deserter cases. The maximum sentence for AWOL cases is 18 months; for desertion, five years. 

Desertion during wartime is punishable by the death penalty or life in prison, though such punishment is extremely rare. Army Pvt. Eddie Slovik, a World War II soldier, remains the only service member to have been executed for desertion since the Civil War. Interestingly, while Travis King’s jump to North Korea didn’t come during an active war, the Korean War that ended 70 years ago never technically ended; there was no formal truce, leaving the U.S. and North Korea still technically in a state of war.

Why not call him a “deserter”? 

Experts in military law offered a range of explanations for the Army’s decision to stick to the “AWOL” designation for Private King. 

Michael Hanzel, a former U.S. Navy JAG officer and defense attorney, suggested an investigation may be ongoing, and that while the 30-day mark had passed, the military may feel it needs more time.

“Whenever misconduct is alleged, regardless of what the consensus may be, an investigation is required,” Hanzel said. “It would make sense for them to withhold making any final decision until that process is complete, as that process may involve looking into his digital media, communication, etc, for evidence of intent to remain away permanently.” 

U.S. officials told The Messenger that a change to “deserter” classification could impact King’s safety in North Korea - though they didn’t elaborate. And Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon spokesperson, answered a reporter’s question by suggesting, in effect, that North Korea was different.

“There’s been no change to Private King’s status and those regulations you refer to are regulations that pertain to your normal situation,” Ryder said. “This is not a normal situation clearly.” 

Brian Pristera, a major in the U.S. Army Reserves and a criminal defense attorney, offered other considerations.  

“They don’t know what converting him to a deserter status might do to his mental health while he’s in North Korea,” Pristera told The Messenger. “So if he hears that he’s been converted to a deserter, it may compel him to defect even if he isn’t already compelled to defect.”

Pristera said that while the differences in punishment were not that dramatic, “Everybody just knows that desertion is worse, much worse, than AWOL” He added that the change in status would convey to King that the U.S. was “coming after you” - and give the North Koreans the impression that they hold an even more important American. 

“The other consideration is what is North Korea going to do with the leverage if we make him a deserter. You know the whole ‘Americans abandoned their own soldier’ or ‘made him a deserter’ type of propaganda.” 

North Korea has said little about King since he crossed the border. Last week the state newswire publicly acknowledged for the first time that King was in the country. 

"Travis King confessed that he had decided to come over to the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] as he harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army," KCNA reported. "He also expressed his willingness to seek refugee in the DPRK or a third country, saying that he was disillusioned at the unequal American society.”