This Makes TWO in a Row from El Paso to Flee to North Korea

The American soldier that ran into North Korea had been stationed at Fort Bliss.

The soldier, identified as 23-year-old Travis King, had most recently served two months in a South Korean prison for (allegedly) assault charges.

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He WAS scheduled to be sent back to Fort Bliss for further disciplinary action. But, then he went with a group of tourists to the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea…and made a run for it to the North Korean side.

Some of the eyewitnesses on the guided tour are saying that King was laughing as he ran to the North Korean side.

If, as this might suggest, it turns out that Travis King was attempting to DEFECT the North, he’ll be the first American to have done so since 2015. Interestingly, the LAST guy to try to defect was ALSO from El Paso.

According to reporting from our news partners at KVIA, in 2014 a native El Pasoan named Arturo Pierre Martinez tried to defect to North Korea.

He definitely tried to defect. We know this because he gave a press conference, IN NORTH KOREA, to denounce the U.S. and try to convince them to let him stay. It didn’t go well.

Even after all of that denouncing and renouncing of America…the North Koreans STILL denied his defection.

Then sent him back to the U.S. and the last information available says that he returned to El Paso in 2016.

For now, Arturo Pierre Martinez is the LAST American to try to defect to the so-called “Hermit Kingdom” of North Korea.