The U.S. soldier who crossed the inter-Korean border while visiting the Joint Security Area on Tuesday had previous run-ins with the law in South Korea.

According to the legal community on Wednesday, the Seoul Western District Court charged the U.S. Forces Korea(USFK) servicemember, identified by the U.S. Army as Private Second Class Travis King, with damaging public property and fined him five million won, or around four-thousand U.S. dollars, in February.

A police car arrived at the site of a reported assault in Seoul's Mapo District in the early hours of October 8, 2022, where King was arrested after he kicked and destroyed the rear right-side door of the vehicle while refusing to respond to officers.

In a separate incident, King was also charged last September after getting into a fight with a South Korean national at a club in Seoul's Mapo District and assaulting him, but the charges were dropped upon the victim's request.

[Photo : YONHAP News]