This is a story of betrayal, abuse, and becoming a movie star in the most oppressive country in
the world. Every year thousands of people defect from North Korea to the surrounding
countries. But what is it like for a U.S. soldier to defect to North Korea? One man
fully embraced his new overlords, and did some terrible, terrible, things.
This man was James Joseph Dresnok, and he not only committed the insane crime of defecting
to North Korea, but while there he became the go to enforcer for disciplining other
United States soldiers. Dresnok’s story is a dark one, with some crazy twists and turns.
You may be wondering why a U.S. soldier would do a crazy thing like defect to North Korea.
The answer may not be what you imagine.
James Joseph Dresnok had a rough childhood. His parents got divorced when he was ten and he never
saw his mother again. He lived with his father for a bit, but then was placed in a foster home,
dropped out of high school, and joined the Army who sent him to West Germany.
He had married before being deployed, but when he returned home from his tour,
he found that his wife had left him. Dresnok decided to re-enlist and was sent to South Korea.
At this point things weren’t getting any better for Dresnok. He had no family,
no wife, and nothing to lose. Soon after being stationed in South Korea,
Dresnok found himself facing court martial charges for forging signatures on paperwork that would
allow him to leave the U.S. base. But rather than facing his punishment, Dresnok had other plans.
On August 15, 1962 Dresnok waited for the soldiers on the base to head to lunch
before making his move. He snuck off the base and crossed the minefield that separated North
and South Korea in broad daylight. Dresnok had no intention of being court-martialed.
The North Korean soldiers on the other side of the DMZ weren’t exactly welcoming at first. To
be fair, they probably didn’t trust any Americans, even if they were defecting.
Dresnok was taken to Pyongyang where he was interrogated. Many years later Dresnok
recounted his defection and explained why he did it. He said: “I was fed up with my childhood,
my marriage, my military life, everything. I was finished. There's only one place to go.”
That place was North Korea, and once he was there, things got really crazy.
Soon after entering the country Dresnok met another United States soldier who had defected
to North Korea named Larry Allen Abshier. A few other U.S. soldiers would join them later on,
but unlike the others, Dresnok seemed to eventually fully embrace his new home.
One of the main jobs that defectors had in North Korea was acting in the film industry. That may
seem unbelievable, but the U.S. soldiers did not just play any role, they were always the villains.
In North Korean films the bad guys are almost always Americans, because in reality,
every North Korean movie is propaganda. Some of the movies that the defectors starred in were even
directed by Kim Jong-il himself. The leadership seized the opportunity to use U.S. defectors in
their films to further ingrain the hatred of their enemy in the citizens of the country. However,
this also led to Dresnok becoming a movie star. It was his role in a film called Unsung Heroes
where he played an American villain named Arthur Cockstud that gained him fame in North Korea.
After the film aired people on the streets of Pyongyang would affectionately call him
Arthur after his character in the movie. His character’s name became more commonly used
than his actual name. But it wasn’t just the life of an actor that Dresnok lived,
he had other responsibilities as well.
He would appear on magazine covers and use the loudspeaker on the border of the DMZ to
try and persuade more U.S. troops to defect to North Korea where life was much better.
It was not all fun and games though. It was reported that all of the U.S. soldiers who
defected tried to seek asylum at the Soviet embassy, but were turned away and immediately
given back to the North Korean authorities. This would suggest that Dresnok and the other
defectors were not completely happy with their decision to live in North Korea.
Dresnok was recruited by Kim Jong-il himself to help translate American movies into North
Korean subtitles, so that he could watch them. The American also taught English at
the college level and translated writings for North Korean leaders. So it would seem Dresnok
was a man of many trades, but all were for the benefit of the North Korean government.
Helping and entertaining North Korean leaders were the more mild things
that Dresnok did. There was also a much darker side to the life of this defector.
Charles Jenkins was one of the other defectors in North Korea with Dresnok. He had crossed the
demilitarized zone with an empty M14 during one of his patrols. Jenkins stated he had
defected because of his fear of being sent to Vietnam as the war there began to escalate.
Like Dresnok, Jenkins was put into propaganda films. He even played a character named Dr.
Kelton alongside Dresnok in Unsung Heroes. In the film Jenkins was an evil U.S.
businessman who was trying to keep America at war, so he could make
massive amounts of money off of his arms manufacturing business. This was propaganda
against the United States and capitalism as a whole. Jenkin’s head was shaved and
his face covered with makeup to make him look as villainous as possible.
He was forced to appear in other films as well as translate American movies for Kim
Jong-il’s cinema addiction. But Jenkins got extremely lucky when he married a
Japanese woman who had been kidnapped by North Korea and was living there against her will.
She was used to teach North Korean spies the Japanese language. In 2004 Japan and
North Korea made an agreement that released many Japanese kidnap victims back to their homeland.
Jenkins was sent to Japan with his wife where he wrote the book The Reluctant Communist:
My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea.
In it Jenkins recounts the darker side of James Joseph Dresnok.
What he did will make your stomach churn.
Dresnok was a bully who would do the bidding of North Korean leaders no matter what the task was.
He would often betray the other U.S. soldiers who had defected by telling the North Koreans
everything they said, especially if it pertained to escaping or going against their oppressors. But
even that wasn’t the worst part. Dresnok would also beat up the other U.S. soldiers. He became
the go to punisher for the North Koreans when they needed to instill fear in the other Americans.
Dresnok denied the allegations when Jenkins book came out, but out of all the defectors,
Dresnok seemed to embrace his North Korean home more than the others.
This isn’t surprising as he may have received special treatment for his
willingness to cooperate and accept his new rulers. In one of his North Korean
propaganda speeches Dresnok said that during the North Korean famine in the
1990’s he would receive plenty of food even as North Korean citizens starved all around him.
Of course in his message he blamed the United States and Japanese sanctions for causing so
much death and starvation in the country. He ended his speech by stating: “The Great Leader
has given us a special solicitude. The government is going to take care of me until my dying day."
Whether Dresnok was willing to say these things of his own freewill,
or was forced to by the North Korean government, is unclear. However,
it would not be the last time he would praise North Korean leaders.
During his time in North Korea Dresnok was married twice. Each marriage was
under questionable circumstances. His first wife was Doina Bumbea who was from Romania.
In official North Korean records it was said that Bumbea worked in the Romanian Embassy in
Pyongyang, but her family claims that was not the case. According to Bumbea’s family
she was an art student in Italy when she was abducted and smuggled to North Korea.
The abduction may have been a plan by the North Koreans to provide one of the
U.S. deserters with a wife, so that they could create more “white” looking babies
for future propaganda films. When Bumbea’s family brought the abduction to the attention of the
Romanian government they requested an explanation from North Korea. They never received an answer.
Doina Bumbea was said to have died from lung cancer, but not before giving birth to two sons.
It is not entirely clear who Dresnok’s next wife was, but may have been the daughter of a
North Korean woman and a Togolese diplomat. Together they had a son. All of Dresnok’s
children are still living in North Korea and have been integrated into the society.
James Joseph Dresnok died of a stroke in April of 2016. He was the last of the United States
soldiers still alive who defected to North Korea. In 2006 he recorded the opening to a
film in which he said "I have never regretted coming to the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea. I feel at home. I really feel at home... I wouldn't trade it for nothing."
You may be wondering who the other defectors were other than James
Joseph Dresnok and Charles Jenkins. Less is known about the other four soldiers,
but some facts have recently surfaced. As we mentioned before Charles Jenkins
was the only one to get out of North Korea, but what about the others?
On May 28, 1962 private Larry Allen Abshier left his post and crossed the minefields into North
Korea. He was the first U.S. soldier to defect to North Korea. Abshier had been caught smoking
marijuana several times on the base, and instead of facing the consequences, decided to defect.
Once in North Korea, like all of the other defectors, he was put into the propaganda films.
Just after Dresnok defected a man named Jerry Wayne Parrish crossed the DMZ to North Korea.
He was a corporal in the U.S. Army at the time, and never gave a clear reason
for defecting other than if he returned home, “his father-in-law would kill him.”
Roy Chung defected to North Korea sometime around 1979, but his story is stranger than the others.
Chung was stationed in Germany when he disappeared from his unit. However, three months after
his disappearance the North Korean government announced over a radio broadcast that the U.S.
soldier had defected. He was now happily situated in their country. Chung’s parents couldn't believe
their son would defect, and insisted that he was kidnapped by the North Korean government.
In 1982 private Joseph T. White was the last U.S. soldier known to have defected to North
Korea. He seemed to have somewhat of a plan. He shot the lock off of a gate at the demilitarized
zone using his M16, and then shouted “I am coming” as he walked across the minefield
towards North Korea. When investigators searched White’s belongings in the barracks they found
pro-North Korean pamphlets and other propaganda among his stuff. Like all of the defectors White
was welcomed by North Korean soldiers who handcuffed him and shoved him into a bunker.
Now check out “North Korea vs United States (USA) - 2021 Military / Army Comparison.”
Or watch “What It Is REALLY Like Living In North Korea?”