A US soldier who ran across the border into North Korea in July “admitted entering illegally,” North Korea’s state news agency KCNA said Wednesday.

This is the first public response from North Korea to the case of Private Travis King.

King, who was reported to be 23 years old, would return to the United States and face disciplinary action after being involved in a bar brawl, getting into a fight with police and spending a short time in a Korean prison.

But instead of jumping on a plane to the United States, he ran away, took part in a tour of the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas, and fled across the border.

“During the investigation, Travis King confessed that he had decided to come to the DPRK (People’s Republic of North Korea) because he disliked the inhumane treatment and racial discrimination within the US military,” the KCNA agency said.

The United States has no formal diplomatic ties with North Korea, and since the country closed its borders at the start of the pandemic, most embassies in Pyongyang have withdrawn their diplomats.