North Korea Uses Travis King Effectively for Propaganda
Is the media helping North Korea's push its propaganda campaign?
Travis King, a former private in the U.S. Army who had been convicted of assault, defected to North Korea on July 18, ten days after being released from a South Korean jail, and we haven't heard anything from him or from North Korea speaking on his behalf. Now North Korea has finally spoken on his behalf.
The rogue state claimed that King told them that he ran off to one of the worst human rights abusers in the world in order to escape maltreatment and racial discrimination in the Army. The information is misleading on multiple levels.
In the first place, we do not even know what King told the North Korean officers who interrogated him. The North Korean government is not a trustworthy source, and North Korea does not allow the publication of independent newspapers.
Second, even if King did make such a statement (which is entirely plausible), we cannot put any weight whatsoever in the judgments of a man who is so lacking in rational judgment that he would run away to North Korea. He might be so deluded that he really does think North Korea is a refuge from mistreatment. His family has said that his mental health was deteriorating.
Racism and maltreatment would be a good justification to claim, at any rate, when you are being interrogated by North Korean agents about why you illegally crossed into their country while in serving in the military of the enemy.
North Korea got a round of press out of King. The headlines read, "North Korea says U.S. soldier fled because of racism in army."
The headlines are factually accurate, and the BBC article does, to the authors' credit, state in the fourth paragraph that Washington could not verify the DPRK's claims as to King's statements. It also contextualizes North Korea's use of propaganda.
But I wonder how much new and useful information the reader learned. There wasn't anything in the article that helps the reader understand why King might have fled--or how he's being treated or what is happening next.
That's just how reporting works in a free country. Most readers should be smart enough to understand.