North Korea confirms custody of U.S. soldier Travis King, who crossed DMZ in July

North Korea on Tuesday commented publicly the first time on an American soldier who ran into the territory of the isolated country last month.

North Korean state-run media KCNA claimed that “Travis King admitted that he illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK,” using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

U.S. Army Pvt. 2nd Class Travis King, 23, crossed the Demilitarized Zone, the heavily fortified border between North Korea and South Korea, “willfully and without authorization,” in July, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters last month.

North Korea also alleged King said he decided to cross into North Korean territory.

KCNA said King “confessed that he had decided to come over to the DPRK as he harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army.”

“He also expressed his willingness to seek refugee in the DPRK or a third country,” the KCNA report says.

The claims could not immediately be verified.

KCNA, officially the Korean Central News Agency, is essentially a mouthpiece for North Korea’s authoritarian government.

U.S. Defense Department spokesman Martin Meiners said “we can’t verify these alleged comments.”

“We remain focused on his safe return. The Department’s priority is to bring Private King home, and that we are working through all available channels to achieve that outcome,” Meiners said.

North Korea previously offered a very brief response to United Nations officials about King, a Pentagon official said on Aug. 1.

U.S. Brigadier Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters on Aug. 1 that United Nations Command had communicated with North Korea through “via well-established communication channels through the Joint Security Agency.”

“I can confirm that the DPRK has responded to United Nations Command but I don’t have any substantial progress to read out,” Ryder said at the time.

King was being sent home from South Korea when he blended in with a group of tourists bound for the demilitarized zone and “bolted” across the border on July 18, the U.S. Defense Department has said.

Tensions are still high between North Korea and South Korea 70 years after the Korean War.

An armistice signed in 1953 ended the fighting, but a peace treaty between the two countries has never been signed.