North Korea says it will deport US soldier Travis King, who ran across the border from South Korea during a tour in July.

Pyongyang will deport him having finished its investigation into King’s “illegal” entry, state news agency KNCA said.

It did not specify how, when or to where Private King would be expelled – nor what his state of health was.

The announcement comes a month after North Korea acknowledged detaining him.

According to KCNA, the 23-year-old confessed to having illegally crossed into North Korea “due to inhuman treatment in the US military, antipathy to racism and disillusionment with the unequal US society.”

“The relevant body in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has decided to deport US soldier Travis King, who illegally entered the territory of the republic, in accordance with the laws of the republic," It said.

Private King, a reconnaissance specialist who had been in the army since January 2021, has not been heard from or seen since his crossing.

He was in South Korea as part of his rotation and had been due to be sent home to the US to be disciplined after spending two months in detention in South Korea on assault charges.

Private King was on a guided tour of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), which separates the two Koreas, when he left the group and ran across the border.

The two countries are technically still at war after the Korean War ended with an armistice in the 1950s. Tens of thousands of US troops remain in the South.

In recent years, a number of American citizens who illegally entered North Korea – excluding those convicted of criminal activity there – have been freed within six months.

Some have been returned home by air via Beijing. They include missionary Robert Park, who was freed in 2010 after being held for more than a month, and the US Korean War veteran Merrill Newman.(BBC)

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