U.S. soldier who defected to North Korea has died
SEOUL, South Korea — One of a handful of U.S. soldiers who defected to North Korea during the Cold War died last year after living there for more than half a century, two of his sons said in a video on a pro-North Korea website.
The soldier, James Joseph Dresnok, died in November at 74, according to his sons, Ted Dresnok and James Dresnok Jr. The sons, who were born in t he North and are now in their 30s, were interviewed there Aug. 15 by Roh Kil Nam, a journalist based in the United States, according to Roh, who uploaded the video to his website Friday.
Dresnok was a U.S. soldier based in South Korea, facing marital troubles and a potential court-martial for forging a pass, when he defected to North Korea in 1962, crossing the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas. He is believed to have been the last U.S. deserter still alive in the North.
“I was fed up with my childhood, my marriage, my military life, everything,” Dresnok told the makers of Crossing the Line, a 2006 documentary. “I was finished. There’s only one place to go. I crossed over, looking for my new life.”
The few Americans who defected to North Korea were soon deployed for their propaganda value, and Army Pvt. 1st Class Dresnok, from Richmond, Va., was no exception. He was put on magazine covers, and he glorified North Korean life in messages that were broadcast to U.S. troops across the border.
Later, he starred as a U.S. villain in propaganda films made for a domestic audience and became something of a celebrity. He told the makers of Crossing the Line that he would not leave the North “if you put a billion damn dollars of gold on the table.”
In the interview uploaded to Minjok Tongshin, Roh’s website, Ted Dresnok said, “To his last day, our father had lived a life blessed by the love and benefits from the party.”
During the interview, which was conducted in Korean, both sons wore military officers’ uniforms and lavished praise on their country’s totalitarian government. The Dresnok brothers alluded to the recent rise in tensions between North Korea and the United States. “I advise the Americans to think twice,” James Dresnok Jr. said.