A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Mulek
MULEK. The infant son of Zedekiah, king of Judea, who was preserved when the rest of his brothers were slain (II Kings, 25:7) by the king of Babylon. Eleven years after Lehi left Jerusalem the Lord led another colony from that city to America, among whom was Mulek, who, at that time, must have been very young, as his father was only 21 years old when he commenced to reign, and he reigned but eleven years in Jerusalem (II Chronicles, 36:11; Jeremiah, 52:1). It is altogether probable that when Mulek attained a proper age he, on account of his lineage, was recognized as king or leader of the colony.
Regarding the journey of this company, all we are told in the Book of Mormon is that they came out of Jerusalem at the time that Zedekiah, king of Judea, was carried away captive into Babylon, and that they journeyed in the wilderness and were brought by the hand of the Lord across the great waters. Again we are informed that they landed on the northern continent, in the land afterwards known to the Nephites as the land Desolation, and for this reason the Nephites called North America the land of Mulek. This must not be confounded with the country immediately surrounding the city of Mulek, in South America. In after years this colony migrated southward and settled on the River Sidon, where their descendants were afterwards found by the Nephites.