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Army private Travis King staged his mad dash across the border into North Korea just one day after he missed his flight to the US because he claimed he lost his passport – and one onlooker says he was “going so fast” that officials had no chance of catching him.

King, 23, cleared customs at Incheon Airport in Seoul on Monday and texted his military escorts that he had checked in to the American Airlines flight bound for Dallas, CNN reported.

Instead of getting on the 6:36 p.m. flight, however, King claimed to have misplaced his passport, which meant he had to reverse back through the immigration process, the outlet explained.

“He passed through all the security points up to the boarding gate but he told the airline staff that his passport was missing,” an official from Icnheon told CNN.

The American Airlines staff are believed to have escorted the Wisconsin native back to the departure side, where King subsequently left the airport without notifying his superiors.

“He came back to the departure side of the airport at 7:02 p.m,” nearly 30 minutes after the flight departed, the airport official told CNN.

The next day, King was spotted in civilian clothes on a tour of the Joint Security Area inside the demilitarized zone that divides North and South Korea.

He appeared to be traveling alone, and did not speak to the other tourists, witness Sarah Leslie later told the Associated Press.

A photo captured by Leslie shows King in a dark-colored shirt and hat staring at the border just seconds before he sprinted onto the North Korea side.

“I assumed initially he had a mate filming him in some kind of really stupid prank or stunt, like a TikTok, the most stupid thing you could do,” she recalled of the moment King made a break for it.

“But then I heard one of the soldiers shout, ‘Get that guy.’

“I assumed initially he had a mate filming him in some kind of really stupid prank or stunt, like a TikTok, the most stupid thing you could do,” she recalled of the moment King made a break for it.

“He was going so fast, and we were so close to the border, that he was gone by then.”

King initially tried to enter Panmungak Hall, but the front door was locked, a US official told CNN.

He then ran to the back of the building, only to be hurried into a van and driven away by North Korean guards.

It was only on Tuesday, when King failed to report to Fort Bliss as planned, that the US military realized the private second-class was missing, the outlet said.

South Korean immigration officials later confirmed that he did not board the American Airlines flight on Monday evening.

As of Wednesday, the US government was still trying to piece together King’s motive for defecting, as well as his current status.

“We are still gathering all the facts, it is still very early on,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.