Illegal Crossings
What do Travis King, Donald Trump, and Ed Dufton have in common? We all (probably illegally) crossed into North Korea.
Donnie hippity-hopped over the line during a photo op when he met with Kim Jong Un in Panmunjom back in 2018. It was one of Donnie’s top photo ops along with flashing the Bible outside a church during the George Floyd riots and tossing rolls of paper towels to the crowd in hurricane devastated Puerto Rico.
Lieutenant Dufton drove an asphalt paving machine back and forth the length of Freedom Bridge into and out of North Korea under the watchful eyes of Kalashnikov-toting enemy soldiers. It was the United Nations’ forces turn to pave the bridge that year. If they shot me, it would be illegal. Of course, it was also illegal to carry arms in the “Demilitarized Zone”.
Donnie and I made it back in one piece. US Army Private Travis King will likely not be as fortunate. Last week, Travis somehow escaped from military custody at the Seoul airport, joined a tour group going to Panmunjom, and bolted across the border into the waiting arms of the North Korean Army. There has been no news of his fate, but it is not likely to be good. In 2018, American college student Otto Warmbier was released by the North Koreans after the horrific crime of stealing a propaganda poster. Otto suffered brain damage while imprisoned and died shortly after his release back to the US. Imagine what the North Koreans will do to an American soldier.
Travis went out of the frying pan into the fire. He had drunkenly assaulted South Korean civilians and damaged a Seoul police car when arrested. He spent some time in a Korean prison as a result. That brought back bitter memories to me. My most distasteful duty as a company commander in Korea was retrieving my guys from Korean jails. Maybe they are better today, but back in 1970, foreign prisoners were placed in underground cells with no ventilation and no toilets.
Travis must have thought, “North Korea can’t be worse than this”. Oh Travis, it will be. They hate Americans. They particularly hate American soldiers. That South Korean jail will seem like Shangri-La compared to where you are now.
By Ed Dufton
