‘He was going so fast’: US officials try to piece together why soldier bolted into North Korea

Just one day before crossing into North Korea, Private Travis King texted his US military handlers to let them know he had arrived at his gate at Incheon Airport in Seoul and was preparing to board a plane back to the US.

King, a junior enlisted soldier assigned to US Forces Korea, had faced assault charges in South Korea and was due to be removed from the US military upon his return to Fort Bliss, Texas.

But while he cleared customs, he did not get on the plane as scheduled on Monday, US officials told CNN. His escorts could not accompany him all the way to the gate to verify that he had boarded. Instead, on Tuesday, he booked a tour with a private company of the Joint Security Area inside the demilitarized zone, which divides North and South Korea.

King had checked in to an American Airlines flight bound to Dallas but reported a missing passport and didn’t board.

“He passed through all the security points up to the boarding gate but he told the airline staff that his passport was missing,” an official at the Incheon airport told CNN. The airline staff then escorted him back outside to the departure side, the official said.

On Monday, the American Airlines flight left Incheon at 6:36 p.m., according to the airline.

“He came back to the departure side of the airport at 7:02 p.m.,” the official said. American Airlines declined to comment on the incident to CNN.

When passengers have emergency situations where they cannot board a plane after passing through the immigration process, they must reverse the procedure under the immigration office’s approval.

While on a tour inside the demilitarized zone the next day, King inexplicably made a run for it across the demarcation line into North Korea, an eyewitness on the same tour and US officials familiar with the case…