Lawyers representing US soldier who crossed into North Korea are in plea negotiations with prosecutors

CNN —

The legal team representing Pvt. Travis King, the US soldier who ran across the border from South to North Korea last year, is in plea negotiations with military prosecutors, according to King’s attorney.

King was expected to face an Article 32 hearing, which is a preliminary hearing in a military court, on Tuesday at Fort Bliss, Texas, but the hearing was delayed, according to a spokeswoman for the Army’s Office of Special Trial Counsel. King’s attorney, Frank Rosenblatt, told CNN in a phone call that the delay was the result of a joint request from both sides as negotiations are ongoing.

“We are negotiating a resolution and because of that, no need to have the [Article 32 hearing] right now,” Rosenblatt said, adding that the Article 32 hearing has been delayed for two weeks and would likely not be necessary if a plea agreement is reached.

King is facing eight charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including desertion, possession of child pornography, assaulting a noncommissioned officer, and disobeying a superior officer. His case was taken over by the Army’s Office of Special Trial Counsel — a new office within each of the military services that handles the prosecution of crimes such as murder, sexual assault, kidnapping and domestic violence — on July 10, the spokesperson for the office, Michelle McCaskill, told CNN.

Rosenblatt declined to provide details of the plea agreement which was first reported by Stars & Stripes.

A spokesperson for OSTC declined to comment on the possibility of a plea deal but said prosecutors did not object to delaying the Article 32 hearing.

Roughly a week before fleeing into North Korea in July 2023, King had been released from a detention facility in South Korea,