U.S. Soldier’s ‘Father Figure’ Fears He Caused North Korea Defection

A relative of Travis King, the 23-year-old American citizen who crossed into North Korea on Tuesday, fears his last conversation with the U.S. Army private sent him over the edge and across the border of the Korean Peninsula.

Carl Gates, King’s first uncle on his mother’s side of the family, told The Daily Beast that he had an emotional conversation with King when the soldier reached out over the phone to check in on him the weekend before the defection.

“I was basically shitting on the family for not being here for me… when my son was going through what he was going through. And, and so I really didn’t have any encouraging words to give him because I’ve been upset with the family,” Gates said, referring to the recent death of his 7-year-old son. “He was saying that he was sorry, he loved us all. And that he is sorry that he couldn’t be here for me.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.