Anchor: North Korea has released a statement on Wednesday about Travis King, the U.S. Army private who crossed into the regime a month ago. In response to Pyongyang’s claim that King expressed a wish to seek refuge in the North, the U.S. reaffirmed that it is still working to bring him home safely.
Tom McCarthy has the latest.

Report: North Korea has finally broken its silence over a U.S. servicemember’s dash across the inter-Korean border into the regime nearly a month ago.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) on Wednesday announced the preliminary findings of the investigation into what it said was Army Private Second Class Travis King’s illegal intrusion of the country’s territory on July 18.

The report said that King admitted that his crossing was illegal and that he expressed a desire to seek refuge in North Korea or a third country due to disillusionment with inequality in the U.S.

It added that he claimed to be motivated by an “ill feeling” over maltreatment and racial discrimination in the U.S. Army.

After the statement’s release, U.S. news outlets reported that the U.S. Defense Department said King’s comments as claimed by the KCNA cannot be verified, but reaffirmed that the Pentagon's primary focus is retrieving King safely.

The soldier ran across the border during a civilian tour of the Joint Security Area between the Koreas, which he joined unbeknownst to the Army.

It was later determined that he had snuck out of Incheon Airport to join the tour instead of boarding a flight to return to the U.S., where he was going to face military discipline after being released from jail in South Korea for assault, one of multiple run-ins with the law during his deployment.

Tom McCarthy, KBS World Radio News.