A US Army soldier who had been facing disciplinary charges while stationed in South Korea strayed from a tour of the North Korean border and fled into the Hermit Kingdom while shouting “Ha ha ha!”

Travis King, a US Army member, was being held at a South Korean prison over assault charges and was facing additional military discipline. He was set to fly back to the US Tuesday, with military personnel escorting him to the airport.

But King, a private second class, skipped his flight and was seen wearing civilian clothes while taking part in a visit to the Joint Security Area — the border village in the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas that is guarded by soldiers from both sides.

A Swedish tourist who was on the same tour as King wrote in a Facebook post that a man on the tour ran across the border when they visited the Joint Security Area.

“To our right, we hear a loud HA-HA-HA and one guy from OUR GROUP that has been with us all day- runs in between two of the buildings and over to the other side!!” Mikaela Johansson wrote.

“It took everybody a second to react and grasp what had actually happened, then we were ordered into and through Freedom House and running back to our military bus.”

Another witness said the tour organizers and other travelers did not have an immediate reaction to the man’s antics.

“I thought it was a bad joke at first, but when he didn’t come back, I realized it wasn’t a joke, and then everybody reacted and things got crazy,” the witness told the outlet.  

Officials have yet to say how King eluded officials at the airport and made his way to the demilitarized zone to join the tour.

“We’re closely monitoring and investigating the situation and working to notify the soldier’s next-of-kin and engaging to address this incident,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters Tuesday.

The private second class – the second-to-lowest rank in the US Army – was not wearing his uniform at the time. He had recently skipped a flight to the United States before making the “deliberate decision” to cross the border, US officials said.

It is unclear why he missed his flight to the US and crossed into North Korea. While officials said the crossing was made purposely, it remained unclear late Tuesday morning whether the soldier intended to defect to the rogue nation.

The UN Command confirmed the incident in a tweet: “A US National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).”

“We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident,” the message continued, referring to North Korea’s People’s Army.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it did not immediately have any information on the American soldier’s detention by Kim Jong-un’s regime.

While the demilitarized zone does hold areas where visitors can explore to learn about the Korean war, it remains unclear if King was in that area when he was detained.

A State Department travel advisory bans US citizens from entering North Korea “due to the continuing serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of US nationals.”

The ban was enacted after American college student Otto Warmbier was detained by North Korean authorities while on a tour of the country in 2015. He died in 2017, days after he was released from prison and returned to the US in a coma.

The State Department warns that the government is unable to provide any emergency services to citizens detained in North Korea because no diplomatic relations exist with Pyongyang.

King’s detainment came as US and South Korean officials were meeting in Seoul to reaffirm their commitment to defend the democratic nation in case of an attack from their communist neighbors.

It also came the same day the ballistic-missile, nuclear-capable submarine USS Kentucky arrived in Busan, South Korea, for the first port visit to the country by a Navy sub in roughly four decades.

The move was expected to draw the ire of Pyongyang, which technically remains at war with South Korea despite signing an armistice agreement ending active fighting in 1953.

“Kentucky is a launch platform for submarine-launched ballistic missiles, providing the United States with its most survivable leg of the nuclear triad,” the Navy said in a statement Tuesday.

“The visit represents the United States’ ironclad commitment to the Republic of Korea for its extended deterrence guarantee, and compliments the many exercises, training, operations and other military cooperation activities conducted with the ROK.”

With Post Wires