The North Korea crisis

 

Travis King Facebook/TT  

 

The North Korea crisis  

Analysis: The case gives North Korea a powerful bargaining chip  

 

The relationship between the US and North Korea is particularly bad right now. That's what CNN's Brad Lendon writes in an analysis of what might happen to soldier Travis King, who was arrested in North Korea after voluntarily crossing the border from South Korea.  

 

Lendon mentions how North Korea is increasingly testing ballistic robots, at the same time that the United States is to send a nuclear-armed submarine to a South Korean port. King could potentially give North Korea's Kim Jong-Un a "powerful bargaining chip," he writes.  

 

According to Lendon, it is unclear how important information King has, but he could also be used for North Korean propaganda. 

 

However, an analyst that the South Korean Korea Times spoke to does not believe that there will be any major deal. Cheong Seong-Chang of the Sejong Institute think tank says the soldier will likely be deported to the United States, but that it may be delayed if he can share information that North Korea deems important. 

 

However, it is complex, says Oh Gyeong-Seob of the think tank Korea Institute for National Unification. Travis King was not abducted and as long as he is in North Korea voluntarily there is not much the US can do, but at the same time it is impossible to determine if he is speaking freely in North Korean captivity, he says.

   

 

Travis King's mom: Wants him to come home  

 

American soldier Travis King's mother is shocked by reports that he would have crossed the North Korean border voluntarily, according to ABC News.  

 

- I can't see that Travis would do something like that, she tells the news channel. She is said to have spoken to her son just a few days before the incident and hopes he will come home. 

 

 King is said to have been imprisoned in South Korea, where he served, after a suspected beating, writes The Daily Beast.  

 

King was touring the demilitarized zone after fleeing Seoul airport in South Korea. He would then be escorted to the Fort Bliss military base in the United States, where more disciplinary measures await him after the suspected assault.  

 

According to the UN, King is currently said to be imprisoned in a North Korean detention center.