'Get him': Witness says US soldier suddenly ran into North Korea

 

Get him.

That's what one witness said.

A soldier from South Korea

yelled as a U.S.

soldier made a run for North Korea.

The 23 year old Travis

King was on a public

tour of the joint security area

where talks can take place

between the North

and South Korean officials.

It says Blue House is

you can walk in there,

but you just can only step over the line.

That's not what happened with him.

And we've got a new picture

taken just minutes

before he crossed the border.

You see him in this picture

on the left hand side of the photo

wearing a dark shirt and a black cap.

CNN speaking with the woman

who took this photo

and she says she thought it was a stunt

until she heard a soldier

on the South Korean side yell, get him

I thought

this was guy

doing it for a tick tock

stance on something

really, really stupid like that.

But he didn't stop.

And then

at that stage,

one of the American soldiers said,

get inside.

You know, let's run.

Get inside one of us.

Will Ripley is OUTFRONT

live near the DMZ.

And Will

What can you tell us about

how easy it was for the soldier

to make a run for North Korea?

And do you know anything

about where he is right now?

Well, we know that he would have driven

basically on this exact bridge

here, Aaron, pass

the security checkpoint.

This is the Unification Bridge.

They only opened it to the traffic

and when I say traffic,

I mean people who work there

for about an hour

and a half in the morning each day.

So these cars would have to go through

security, check here,

then drive down

about five miles

when they get to that joint

security area.

Now, when he was actually walking

near the dividing line between North

and South Korea,

there were armed guards on both sides.

But the North

doesn't have a lot of guards right now

because of COVID.

So actually, it's believed

that he sprinted across

and was able to jump into a van

with North Korean guards

who drove him away.

But his location right now

still unknown Erin.

It's absolutely incredible

to think he would make that choice.

And his family, I know, is speaking out.

What are they saying? Well,

Well, look,

his brother

was speaking with ABC

saying that they understand

the gravity of the situation.

His mother

telling ABC News

that she was shocked,

saying she could not imagine

her son, Travis doing anything like this.

And actually,

we have some sound from the brother,

which we're

going to play for you right now.

We understand

the gravity of the situation.

It's a

very massive and unfortunate thing.

My mom's lost a son before,

which is wrong.

So this is weighing very heavily on her

And right now,

there's no information available,

at least publicly, about where

this Army private is,

where he's being held inside North Korea.

He could likely be quarantined

because they're very worried

about COVID 19

with an unvaccinated population.

But, Erin,

they're also going

to want to question him

extensively about his military background

to see if he has

any valuable intelligence.

Of course,

he wasn't in the Army for very long.

So his propaganda and intelligence value

for the North Koreans may be limited,

which means he could just be sitting,

waiting possibly for quite some time.

Will Ripley, thank you very much.

From right outside the DMZ there.

And raising

that bridge, right,

only open for an hour and a half each way

a day for people to go through.

It is a tight security zone.

OUTFRONT now,

retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling,

our CNN military analyst.

General Hertling,

this soldier was a private assigned

to the First Armored Division,

which you commanded.

You know,

you and I were both been to the DMZ.

I mean, to just sort of run over it.

I mean, it's

sort of unfathomable

to imagine someone doing it,

and yet he did.

How big of a problem is this for the U.S.

government at this point?

It's going to be a problem, Erin.

You know,

one of the things

we have an expression

in the Army

that you spend about 90 as a leader

you spend

about 95% of your time

on 5% of your people.

This young private was one of those

kind of people

we're going to be spending

a lot of time on.

You know, it's going to be difficult.

He's a young private.

He's been in the Army two years.

23 years old.

He's a private E-2,

which means if he's been in the Army

two years,

he's probably gotten in trouble before

and has been busted in rank.

He is known to

have had some disciplinary problems.

They're sending him back to Fort Bliss,

Texas,

the home of the First Armored Division.

As you said that I commanded.

So this whole thing is interesting.

It's going to cause problems

for the State Department

because we don't have a status

of forces agreement. With North Korea.

And by that,

I mean there's no negotiations

when a soldier does something wrong

to get him back and punish him,

not punish him

under the uniform code

of military justice. They have him.

And he's not going to have give them

a whole lot of actionable intelligence

because he is a young private

as a cavalry scout.

He probably doesn't have that much

that he can give the North Koreans.

So then, you know,

you heard will say

they don't know where he is.

Could be quarantine, could never mean

is this just going to be a long time that

he's there then?

I suspect that's going to be true.

And North Korea,

as they always

do, are going to make

the most of the propaganda.

They're going to talk about

how undisciplined U.S.

soldiers are

that they are trying

to get into North Korea,

that they don't

want to conform

to the Western ways of South Korea,

and they'd much rather be in the North.

So we're going to hear

those kinds of mantras

coming from the North Korean government.

And they're just going

to delay action on this guy

and probably

just deliver him back someday soon.

But his parents and his family

are going to be very concerned about him.

But it was him doing this action.

I mean, it is it is unbelievable.

Now, of course,

obviously, it's not related,

but it comes on the same day

as North Korea tested

two short range ballistic missiles.

20 ballistic missile tests

so far this year from Kim

Jong un

ICBM with a record

breaking 74 minute flight time.

His sister has also risen in power,

fiery rhetoric.

She threatened the U.S.,

saying the price of the United States

provoking us will never be light.

And now they're

showing off a submarine

they say can carry 80 nuclear warheads.

So what does all this add up to

it?

Well, the submarine is a U.S.

submarine docked

in a port in South Korea.

And it's a very strong message

to the president of North Korea that hey,

don't threaten us with nuclear weapons,

because we will have the capability to go

one on one

and then some with you

with these kind of submarines.

It's interesting

that that's reported today,

because usually

the submarines are a silent service.

You don't know where they are.

So to have that go into a port

and actually take photos of it

and show it on

South Korean

media tells me that this is a messaging

by the U.S.

Navy and the State Department

to have the North Koreans

back down a little bit

from some of these rocket launchers,

which, by the way,

are not connected at all

to this young private

going across the border.

Those were all conducted before

or during the time

when he ran across the border.

Right. Right.

And, of course, require

advanced planning.

Well, thank you so much, General.

I appreciate your time, as always.

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