‘A SERIOUS MISTAKE’

North Korea Will ‘Exact a Price’ for Return of Travis King: Official

“Is he defecting?” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul asked. “I think it was more running from his problems.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-TX) said he worried about the “price” North Korea may demand for the safe return of Travis King, the U.S. Army soldier who illegally bolted across the border last week. “Is he defecting? I think it was more running from his problems,” McCaul said in an interview with ABC’s This Week. “That was the wrong place to go. But we see this with Russia, China, Iran—when they take an American, particularly a soldier, captive, they exact a price for that. And that’s what I worry about.” No updates about the 23-year-old King’s status have been released by North Korea since the private crossed the border and was apparently taken into North Korean custody. “I’m sure that he’s not being treated very well,” McCaul said Sunday. “I think it was a serious mistake on his part, and I hope we can get him back.”