A US soldier who is being held in North Korea after entering the country without permission while on a tourist outing is “not the type to get into trouble”, his sister has said.
Travis King crossed the border into North Korea while on a tour of the de-militarised zone (DMZ) that separates the secretive state from neighbouring South Korea last week.
His sister, Jaqueda Gates, told NBC News: “This is crazy, I was just talking to him, literally 48 hours ago (before the DMZ incident), it was crazy.
Image: Travis King entered North Korea without permission
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Family baffled by serviceman’s run to N Korea
“My brother, he’s not the type to get into trouble like that. It all just sounds made up.”
Private King had been telling family how much he was looking forward to coming home, Ms Gates said, making last week’s run to North Korea all the more baffling.
Urging US officials to do more to secure his release, Ms Gates, 27, said: “The days are getting longer, nights are worse. All I think about is what he can be doing.”
The US Army Private is believed to have been taken into custody once there, a United States Forces Korea spokesperson has said.
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The serviceman had been due to fly back last week, where he was expected to face discipline over a confrontation with local police that landed him in Korean custody for one and a half months, according to a South Korean government official.
But instead of getting on a plane at Seoul to fly to Texas, King apparently slipped away and joined the private tour group at the DMZ.
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Image: Travis King’s uncle, Myron Gates, says the US should ‘fight for’ the soldier
Seeing him dash across the border, others on the trip were stunned, some imagining it was done as a joke.
North Korea, seen as one of the world’s most repressive and impoverished nations, is subject to stringent western sanctions over its nuclear weapons development programme.
The government in Pyongyang, and especially its autocratic leader, Kim Jong Un has little or no relations with Washington.
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Tourist ‘thought it was a TikTok stunt!’
It is technically still at war with the south, as a truce, rather than a formal peace deal ended the Korean War in 1953.
Myron Gates, King’s uncle said: “When he went to the Army to fight for America, America should fight for him, fight for him to come home.”
Ms Gates said: “At the end of the day, I just feel like it should be no men left behind.”
US officials said on Monday that there have been no new communications between the US and North Korea since last week.
Private King’s well-being is a top priority for the US, a State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday.
On Day 77, US correspondents Mark Stone and David Blevins answer your questions on everything from Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs and their impact on American consumers, to Trump’s relationship with Putin and if they have plans for the Arctic, and penguins.
If you’ve got a question you’d like Mark, Martha, and James to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.
Don’t forget, you can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.
Thousands of people gathered in various cities across the US as protests against Donald Trump and Elon Musk took place in all 50 states on Saturday.
Around 1,200 demonstrations were planned in locations including Washington DC, New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida – just miles away from where the US president has this weekend played golf.
The “Hands Off!” protests were against the Trump administration’s handling of government downsizing, human rights and the economy, among other issues.
In Washington DC, protesters streamed on the grass in front of the Washington Monument, where one person carried a banner which read: “Make democracy great again.”
Image: Thousands gathered in Washington DC to rally against various Trump policies. Pic: AP
Image: Pic: AP
Another protester took aim at Mr Trump‘s handling of Russia and Ukraine, with a placard that read: “Stop Putin’s puppets from destroying America.”
Tesla boss Mr Musk also featured on many signs due to his role in controversial government cuts as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Image: Demonstrators in NYC. Pic: AP
Image: People marching in Atlanta, Georgia. Pic: Reuters
Image: A rally in Vermont. Pic: The Brattleboro Reformer via AP
Terry Klein, a retired biomedical scientist, said she drove to the rally to protest Mr Trump’s policies on “everything from immigration to the DOGE stuff to the tariffs this week, to education”.
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“I mean, our whole country is under attack, all of our institutions, all the things that make America what it is,” she added.
Image: A drone view of the protest at the Utah State Capitol building. Pic Reuters
Image: A protester sports a Handmaid’s Tale costume. Pic: Reuters
Image: Pic: Reuters
Some at the various protests carried Ukrainian flags, while others sported rainbow attire and waved rainbow flags in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
Other protesters wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and carried “Free Palestine” signs.
Protesters refuse to take Donald Trump’s policies lying down
It was built to honour George Washington, a founding father of the United States.
And in the shadow of the 555ft Washington Monument, protestors were refusing to accept Donald Trump’s policies lying down.
“Stand tall,” they chanted, again and again.
“In every city, stand tall. In every state, stand tall. In truth, stand tall. In justice, stand tall.”
Those words, shouted by thousands on the city’s iconic mall, were reinforced by the words on their placards and t-shirts.
A minister, wearing a t-shirt with ‘Troublesome Priest’ printed on it, told me she found what was happening in the US government “appalling and immortal”.
One man said he had won the long-distance award, having travelled 2,750 miles from Hawaii for the protest.
“I finally reached a breaking point,” he added. “I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Another woman said: “We have to speak up, we have to act, we have to do something, because this is not America.”
I asked her what she would say to those who argue the people did speak when they elected Donald Trump as president.
She replied: “Some people have spoken and then some people have not and those of us that have not, we need to speak now.”
Thousands marched in New York City’s midtown Manhattan and in Boston, Massachusetts, while hundreds gathered in the sunshine outside the Utah State Capitol building in Salt Lake City, and in the rain outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio.
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Mr Trump – who shook financial markets with his tariffs announcement this week – spent the day in Florida, playing a round of golf before returning to his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Image: People protest in Manhattan. Pic: Reuters
Image: Activists in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Pic: AP
Some four miles from Mar-a-Lago, more than 400 people gathered – and drivers honked their horns in support of protesters who held up signs including one which read: “Markets tank, Trump golfs.”
The White House has said Mr Trump plans to go golfing again on Sunday.
Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.
The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.
The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.