Pvt. 2nd Class Travis King of the U.S. Army chose a particularly poor time to visit North Korea. King might have been facing strict military discipline back home. He might also have been able to evade his U.S. Army security escort. Still, he will struggle to evade or enjoy the North Korean security envelope within which he is now certainly enmeshed.
The exact circumstances of King's apparent defection to North Korea remain unclear. After a U.S. Army escort believed it had put him on a plane to return to Fort Bliss, Texas, it seems that King instead joined a tour group at Incheon International Airport west of Seoul. He then traveled with that group to the so-called South Korea-North Korea border truce village of Panmunjom. Apparently laughing, King then ran into North Korea.
US TECHNOLOGY GIANTS BAT FOR THE PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY AT THE WHITE HOUSE
Unauthorized travel to North Korea is inadvisable at the best of times. Kim Jong Un's regime views Americans as likely spies, saboteurs and enemies of the state that must be watched closely at all times. The experience of Otto Warmbier, a student who was incarcerated and tortured after being convicted of stealing a propaganda poster, is a testament to the danger King now faces. Warmbier died shortly after his repatriation to the U.S. in 2017.
King's particular problem, however, is that U.S.-North Korean relations are at a low point.
Kim's regime has been frustrated that its ballistic missile launches, the latest of which occurred only on Tuesday, have failed to persuade the Biden administration to return to negotiations. Recent months have thus seen North Korea ramp up its anti-American rhetoric in an effort to gain Washington's attention. The U.S. also recently committed to sending nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines on South Korean port calls. Again, timing isn't in King's favor here: the first such submarine visit occurred on Tuesday.
The concern is that this political backdrop may encourage Pyongyang to leverage King's suffering as a means of extracting U.S. concessions in return for his release.
North Korea will have noted, after all, the Biden administration's repeated appeasement of Russia in relation to prior prisoner exchanges. Moscow has had significant success in unjustly detaining U.S. citizens and then using them as bargaining chips for the release of justly detained Russian citizens in U.S. prisons. And it has done so without follow-on consequences from the U.S.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
At the same time, Xi Jinping's China has hinted that it sees North Korea's nuclear program and associated threats as leverage with which to extract its own concessions from the U.S. Beijing is desperate for any leverage it can gain over the U.S. This week it's climate change, next week it could be King. And while this leverage interest might mean that China pressures North Korea to avoid harming King, it also means that King is unlikely to be released unless China feels the price is worth it. Which is to say, high for the U.S.
The inherent challenge here is that Kim's North Korea is deeply paranoid. Pyongyang's inclination will be to sense the worst in King, believing him either to be a spy or a pawn of some malevolent covert U.S. strategy. Amid already poor relations with Washington, King is unlikely to be laughing much in Pyongyang.
Indeed, he is likely now a guest of either the very unpleasant Ministry of State Security or equally unpleasant Reconnaissance General Bureau.