James Joseph Dresnok

James Joseph Dresnok
Born	1941 (age 67) Richmond, Virginia
Residence	Pyongyang, North Korea
Occupation	American soldier (deserted) North Korean teacher, occasional actor

James Joseph Dresnok (born 1941) is an American defector to North Korea. He was featured on the CBS magazine program 60 Minutes on January 28, 2007, as the last United States defector alive in North Korea.

Name

James Joseph Dresnok^[1] refers to himself as “Joe Dresnok” and is referred to as both “James Dresnok”^[2][3] and “Joe Dresnok” in news reports, sometimes as both in the same report.^[4]

Family

He was the son of Joseph Dresnok I (1917–1978), and has a brother Joseph Dresnok II (born 1946).^[5] In 1951, when Joe was 5 and James was 9, the family split up while living in Richmond, Virginia. Joe said he stayed with his father, and moved with him to Pennsylvania and lost contact with his mother and James.^[6] The arrangement with his father was temporary. In his teens, James Dresnok was placed in a foster home, dropped out of school, and joined the Army one day after his 17th birthday. In his documentary he explains that after marrying an American girl at a young age, he was deployed in West Germany for two years. He prides himself on truly loving her and being loyal to her during that time. However, when he came back she was in another relationship. He said the good thing was that she did not get pregnant by him because he had promised that "I would never abandon my children". When declaring this he cried in front of the camera.

Defection

Dresnok was a Private First Class with a U.S. Army unit along the Korean Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea in the early 1960s. After his wife in the United States left him for another man, he re-enlisted and was sent to South Korea. Soon after his arrival, he found himself facing a court martial for forging signatures on paperwork that gave him permission to leave base and which, ultimately, led to him being AWOL (Absent WithOut Leave). Unwilling to face punishment, on August 15, 1962, while his fellow soldiers were eating lunch, he ran across a minefield in broad daylight into North Korean territory, where he was quickly apprehended by enemy soldiers. Dresnok was taken by train to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and interrogated.^[4]

Life in North Korea

Dresnok met Larry Allen Abshier, another American defector soon after his arrival. Eventually there were four of them: Abshier, Jerry Parrish, Charles Robert Jenkins, and Dresnok. The men lived together and participated in several propaganda efforts on behalf of the North Korean government. They appeared on magazine covers and used loudspeakers to try to persuade more American soldiers at the border to defect. However, at first, they did not wish to remain in North Korea indefinitely. In 1966, the four men tried to leave North Korea by seeking asylum at the Soviet embassy in Pyongyang, but were immediately turned over to North Korean authorities by the embassy.^[4] After that experience, Dresnok decided to settle in North Korea and assimilate. Beginning in 1978, he was cast in several North Korean films, including the 20-part series Unsung Heroes, as an American villain, and became a celebrity in the country as a result. He is called "Arthur" by his Korean friends, as that is the name of the character he played in the series. He also translated some of North Korean leader Kim Il-sung’s writings into English.^[4][7] According to Jenkins's book, The Reluctant Communist, Dresnok was something of a bully, betrayed the other Americans' confidences to the North Koreans, and enthusiastically beat up Jenkins 30 or more times upon the orders of their Korean handlers^[8]. In Crossing the Line, Dresnok vehemently denies these allegations.

During his life in North Korea, where he still lives, he has been twice married. His second wife (first in Korea) was a Romanian woman named Doina Bumbea who worked at the Romanian Embassy at the time, and they had two sons (she is referred to as "Dona" in Jenkins' autobiography). After Doina died of lung cancer, he married his third wife, the daughter of a North Korean woman and a Togolese diplomat, with whom he had a son in 2001.^[4] The family lives in a small apartment in Pyongyang that was provided to them, along with a monthly stipend, by the North Korean government.^[4] Today, Dresnok is in failing health, with a bad heart and liver (Dresnok describes his liver as "full of fat"), which he attributes to smoking and drinking too much.^[4]

Dresnok has stated that he intends to spend the rest of his life in North Korea, and that no amount of money could entice him back to the West.^[4] Currently in retirement, Dresnok occasionally gives lectures in North Korea and spends his time fishing “just to pass the time.”^[4]

His eldest son from his second marriage, James Dresnok, was a student at Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies, where his father taught English in the 1980s.^[4] James speaks English with a Korean accent and considers himself Korean although he reportedly does not wish to marry a Korean woman.^[4] James intends to enter the diplomatic service.^[4]

Crossing the Line documentary film

Dresnok is also the subject of a documentary film entitled Crossing the Line by British filmmakers Daniel Gordon and Nicholas Bonner, which was shown at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.^[9] The film was narrated by actor Christian Slater.^[3]

Quotes

• “On August 15th, at noon in broad daylight when everybody was eating lunch, I hit the road. Yes I was afraid. Am I gonna live or die? And when I stepped into the minefield and I seen it with my own eyes, I started sweating. I crossed over, looking for my new life.” ^[4]

Other defectors to North Korea

• Charles Robert Jenkins (born 1940) of Rich Square, North Carolina, deserted on January 5, 1965 at age 24
• Larry Allen Abshier (1943–1983) of Urbana, Illinois, deserted in May 1962 at age 19
• Jerry Wayne Parrish (1944–1996) of Morganfield, Kentucky, deserted in December 1963 at age 19
• Joseph White, of St Louis, Missouri, deserted in August 1982 at age 20
• List of American defectors in the Korean War

Film credits

• Unsung Heroes (a.k.a. Nameless Heroes) (1978)^[7]
• Crossing The Line^[7]

See also

• North Korean defectors

References

External links

• The World: Crossing the line audio report^{[dead link]}
• Telegraph: US defector says he is happier in North Korea^{[dead link]}
• CBS: Defector Won’t Leave N. Korea For $1B
• CBS: N. Korea’s Last U.S. Defector
• Review of Crossing the Line
• [1] Doina Bumbea EN
• [2] Doina Bumbea EN (2)
• [3] Doina Bumbea RO
• "The Dear Leader Takes Care of Me" 9-9-2008