The saga of Pvt. Travis King, the US soldier who made headlines last year for his defection to North Korea, has taken an unexpected turn, as his legal team is now in plea negotiations with military prosecutors. This development comes just days before King was expected to appear for a preliminary hearing in a military court at Fort Bliss, Texas.
According to King's attorney, Rosenblatt, the preliminary hearing has been delayed for two weeks, as the two sides work towards a potential resolution. Rosenblatt stated that the delay was a joint request, as the negotiations are ongoing, and there may be no need for the Article 32 hearing if a plea agreement is reached.
King is facing a total of eight charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including desertion, possession of child pornography, assaulting a noncommissioned officer, and disobeying a superior officer. The case was recently taken over by the Army's Office of Special Trial Counsel, a newly established office within each of the military services that handles the prosecution of serious crimes such as murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, and domestic violence.
While Rosenblatt declined to provide details of the plea agreement, which was first reported by Stars & Stripes, the OSTC spokesperson, Michelle McCaskill, confirmed that prosecutors did not object to delaying the Article 32 hearing, suggesting that the negotiations may be progressing favorably.
The circumstances surrounding King's defection to North Korea are equally intriguing. Roughly a week before his fateful decision, King had been released from a detention facility in South Korea, where he had been held over an October 2022 incident in which he allegedly pushed and punched a victim in the face at a club in Seoul. On the day he crossed the border into North Korea, King was supposed to have boarded a flight back to Texas, but he instead left the airport after his US Army escorts had departed.
Since his return to US custody last September, King has spent three weeks at the Defense Department's reintegration center, run by US Army South in San Antonio, Texas. He was then transferred to Fort Bliss, where he was ordered into pre-trial confinement, where he has remained since October 18. Rosenblatt revealed that King is currently being held in a detention center in New Mexico that is run by a company contracted by the Army.
The potential for a plea agreement in this case raises questions about the nature of the negotiations and the potential consequences for Pvt. King. As the details of the negotiations remain closely guarded, the public and the military community alike await with bated breath to see how this intriguing case will unfold in the coming weeks.
