The family of a US Army private who fled across the border into North Korea have issued a fresh plea to the Biden administration to do whatever it takes to bring him home.
Travis King, 23, sprinted across the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea after joining a private tour on 18 July and is believed to have been taken into custody.
Mr King had been due to face a military disciplinary hearing later that week after serving two nearly months in prison in South Korea for assault.
In an interview with NBC News, Mr King’s sister Jaqueda Gates said the family were suffering amid the lack of information from North Korean officials.
Ms Gates said she had spoken to her brother 48 hours before his mad dash over the border, and was at a loss to understand what had happened.
“My brother, he’s not the type to get into trouble like that. It all just sounds made up,” Ms Gates told NBC News.
US Army soldier Travis King defected to North Korea on 18 July— (VIA REUTERS)
She said she hoped that the US government was doing everything it could to get her brother out of the secretive totalitarian state.
“At the end of the day, I just feel like it should be no men left behind,” Ms Gates told the network.
Mr King had last week been due to fly back to Texas to face disciplinary action for a confrontation with a South Korean police officer, that landed him in jail for six weeks.
He apparently left Seoul’s Incheon International Airport instead, and joined a tour group visiting the DMZ.
Mr King’s uncle Myron Gates told NBC News that they had been in touch with the parents of Otto Warmbier, a US student who died after being detained in North Korea in 2017.
Mr Gates said his “worst fear” was that his nephew returned from captivity in a vegetative state, as Warmbier had.
“When he went to the Army to fight for America, America should fight for him, fight for him to come home,” Mr Gates told the news site.
Jaqueda Gates says she is struggling to understand what happened to her brother Travis King— (NBC News / screengrab)
Mr King’s mother Claudine Gates was an “emotional wreck”, Mr Gates added.
The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for information about Mr King’s status.
A spokesperson previously said that Mr King’s well-being was their “top priority”.
