Thursday 28 September 2023

The Travis King Affair -the KFA UK View.


We have been asked to comment on the expulsion of Travis King from the DPRK .

The story began with a serving US soldier Travis King illegally entering the DPRK via the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom on the 18th of July in the afternoon.

 After a long fact -finding investigation the DPRK decided to expel Travis King .

Probably there are several reasons for this . Firstly , King could have been a US spy , a double agent aiming to infiltrate the DPRK . Secondly , King's fleeing to the DPRK may have been to try and escape trouble with the US military or to gain publicity for himself . Thirdly, the DPRK does grant asylum , Article 80 of the DPRK Socialist Constitution states "The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea shall grant the right of asylum to foreign nationals persecuted for struggling for peace and democracy, national independence and socialism or for the freedom of scientific and cultural pursuits." . It would appear that Travis King was judged to have not met any of these provisions.

The DPRK in the past had negative experience with American defectors . Charles Robert Jenkins a US army sergeant who crossed over to the DPRK in the 1960s  left the DPRK after 40 years even though he had enjoyed the benefits of Juche socialism for 40 years  and made up all sorts of slanderous stories about the DPRK . 

The DPRK obviously does not want to repeat this experience and has done the right thing in expelling King.


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