Travis King, U.S. soldier who ran into North Korea, is charged with desertion

A U.S. soldier who was released from North Korean custody last month after fleeing to the isolated Communist country from neighboring South Korea has been charged by the military with desertion and other counts, according to documents obtained by NBC News.

Pvt. 2nd Class Travis King, 23, was expelled by North Korea in late September and was taken into U.S. custody in China, officials said at the time. His release came two months after he ran across the fortified border between North and South Korea, where he was stationed.

He is charged with eight counts, according to the charging sheet, including desertion in connection with his dash into North Korea. Others involve child pornography and striking other military personnel.

Two of the eight counts deal with soliciting someone on Snapchat to produce child pornography and possessing a video of what appears to be a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, the charging document says.

Others include leaving military bases when ordered not to, striking other military personnel, and lying to a military official about his whereabouts last year, according to the document.

King was transferred from Joint Base San Antonio, where he had been undergoing re-integration, to Fort Bliss on Wednesday and a military commander signed an order committing him to pre-trial confinement, one of his lawyers said.

King’s legal team believes that was an error, and a hearing likely to be held next week will determine whether he remains confined, said Franklin D. Rosenblatt, the lead counsel of King’s legal team and an assistant professor at the Mississippi College School of Law.

“We ask people to be fair-minded about this and to withhold judgment,” said Rosenblatt, who has represented Bowe Bergdahl, the former U.S. Army soldier who pleaded guilty to desertion after he walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was captured by the Taliban.

“I think we just have to tread really carefully when we take people who have returned from captivity and decide we’re just going to throw the book at them and put them in pre-trial confinement,” he said.

King ran across the Demilitarized Zone, which separates North and South Korea, on July 18.

He had been released earlier that month from a South Korean prison and was being escorted by the military to Incheon International Airport, where he was to fly back to the U.S. and face possible further disciplinary action.

Instead of getting on a plane, he joined a tour group headed for the joint security area along the DMZ, a senior administration official said at the time. He at some point broke from the group and ran across the border “willfully and without authorization,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

In a written statement Thursday, his mother, Claudine Gates, said she loves her son and is concerned about his mental health.

“As his mother, I ask that my son be afforded the presumption of innocence,” she said.

“A mother knows her son, and I believe something happened to mine while he was deployed,” she added.