Army private who fled to North Korea charged with desertion, held by US military, officials tell AP

Salamendacious@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 123 points – Army private who fled to North Korea charged with desertion, held by US military, officials tell AP
apnews.com

An Army private who fled to North Korea before being returned home to the United States last month has been detained by the U.S. military, two officials said Thursday night, and is facing charges including desertion and possessing sexual images of a child.

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CSAM. That’s unexpected.

I guess he may have thought living in squalor in North Korea may be preferable to federal prison with that label…

Desertion AND CSAM, that is a very problematic thing to be charged of in prisons indeed. I can't imagine he will have a good time.

Yep. I don’t remember seeing that bit when he originally fled. Something about assaulting some South Koreans and facing punishment.

This makes trying to flee make a little more sense

They put people who get convicted of CSAM and like crimes into the same cell block, out of genpop.

Isn't this the dude that ran away to North Korea to escape discipline action, and then was passed to China by the Koreans?

Yes. the disciplinary charges were specifically for the CSAM mentioned in the lede. Which is why he ran. Which... how... useless.... do you have to be for NK to not want you to defect?

Not to bring this into it, but I would not be surprised if the ethnostate of North Korea didn't want a black person living there. I'm guessing obviously, but I think that would be a factor.

After all-

Forced abortions are particularly common with North Korean women who became pregnant in China and were forcibly repatriated to North Korea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_North_Korea

If they don't want half-Chinese babies growing up in North Korea, I'm guessing a black guy isn't going to be especially welcome.

The irony here, is that his justification for asylum was… his commanders were racist.

They like Dennis Rodman, but only for the novelty factor of seeing a black man they've been told is a famous basketball player.

From the article:

His release from North Korea was aided by Swedish officials who took King to the Chinese border, where he was met by U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, the Swedish ambassador to China and at least one U.S. Defense Department official. He was then flown to a U.S. military base in South Korea before heading to the U.S.

The guy from Lemmygrad.