By Christy Cooney, BBC News
A North Korean guard post (top) on the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), is seen over a South Korean military fence (bottom) from the border city of Paju. Photo: JUNG YEON-JE / AFP
North Korea has said US soldier Travis King crossed into its territory last month because of "inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination" in the army.
The 23-year-old private dashed across the border from South Korea on 18 July while on a guided tour.
Private King "expressed his willingness to seek refuge" in the North, the country's state media said.
The claims, which are the North's first public comments on the case, could not be verified independently.
There has been no public comment from the soldier or sight of him since he crossed over.
US officials said earlier they believed Private King had crossed the border intentionally.
He is a reconnaissance specialist who has been in the army since January 2021 and was in South Korea as part of his rotation.
Before crossing the border, he served two months in detention in South Korea for assault charges and was released on 10 July.
He was supposed to fly back to the US to face disciplinary proceedings but managed to leave the airport and join a tour of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), which separates North and South Korea.
"During the investigation, Travis King confessed that he had decided to come over to the DPRK [North Korea] as he harboured ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the US Army," North Korean state news agency KCNA said.
"He also expressed his willingness to seek refugee in the DPRK or a third country, saying that he was disillusioned at the unequal American society."
North Korea is one of the few countries still under nominally communist rule and has long been a highly secretive and isolated society. Its government, led by Kim Jong-un, also stands accused of systematic human rights abuse.
The DMZ, one of the most heavily fortified areas in the world, is filled with landmines, surrounded by electric and barbed wire fencing, and monitored by surveillance cameras. Armed guards are supposed to be on alert 24 hours a day.
One person who said they were on the same tour of the South Korean side of the area as Private King described how the group had just visited a building at the site when "this man gives out a loud 'ha ha ha', and just runs in between some buildings".
"I thought it was a bad joke at first, but when he didn't come back, I realised it wasn't a joke, and then everybody reacted and things got crazy," the unnamed witness told the BBC's US partner, CBS News.
They added that there had been no North Korean soldiers visible when the man crossed.
"It was on the way back in the bus, and we got to one of the checkpoints... someone said we were 43 going in and 42 coming back," they said.
Concerns have been growing for the US soldier's welfare. Negotiations between the North Korean authorities and the UN command on the Korean peninsula have been ongoing.
* This story was first published by the BBC.
