By Anadolu staff
ANKARA (AA) - The US soldier who this week crossed the border from South Korea into the North was fresh from serving a two-month sentence in a South Korean prison, local media said on Wednesday.
According to South Korean daily the Korea Herald, the soldier, who the US Army has identified as Pvt. Travis King, has been serving in the army since 2021.
Last year he was fined and arrested over damaging a police patrol car and allegedly punched a South Korean national in the face in a club in the capital Seoul.
After King was released from prison last week, US authorities were preparing to send him back to Fort Bliss, Texas, to face further disciplinary action, according to the daily.
On Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that a US service member had "willfully and without authorization crossed the military demarcation line.”
"We're closely monitoring and investigating the situation and working to notify the soldier's next of kin, and engaging to address this incident," he added.
King had cleared airport security in South Korea on his way back to the US when he joined a tour group that was slated to visit the border village of Panmunjom, where he crossed into North Korea illegally, according to media reports.
Military officials say that during the tour, it is possible to cross the border as the crossing is disarmed under an inter-Korean military agreement, with soldiers on neither side carrying arms.
It is not clear if King crossed into North Korea to avoid further disciplinary action.
*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid