Andrew Farrell learns about the few brave – or foolhardy - souls who have defected both ways across the DMZ
I am currently reading Barbara Demick’s wonderful book Nothing to Envy, a collection of interviews with North Korean defectors currently residing in South Korea. Demick’s book aims to uncover more of the turbulent life experienced by the citizens of the DPRK, particularly those in the city of Chongjin – located agonisingly close to the relative freedom of China and Russia.
The book is as fascinating as much as it is gut-wrenching. The brutal famine which wiped out approximately two million of the population is a focal point, so too the death of the DPRK’s first leader, Kim Il-sung.
“Love live Kim Il-sung. Kim Jong-il, sun of the 21st century. Let’s live our own way. We will do as the party tells us. We have nothing to envy in this world.” Nothing to envy? Even by North Korean standards, this type of propaganda is bewildering.
It is easy for those of us on the outside to question the massive outpouring of grief when Kim Jong-il died before Christmas, but when you’re subjected to hundreds of after-work hours of ideology training and self-punishment, you can somewhat understand the emotions of the people.
However, what is it like when someone goes in the opposite direction? This is where I’ll direct to you the 2006 documentary Crossing the Line. narrated by actor Christian Slater.
Crossing the Line tells the story of First Class Private James Joseph Dresnok, an American soldier who defected to North Korea in 1962. Dresnock, stationed at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), was facing a court marshal for forging paperwork and so, deciding not to face the music, crossed the demarcation line into North Korea where he was immediately apprehended.
“I was fed up with my childhood, my marriage, my military life, everything,” he said of his thinking at the time. “I was finished. There’s only one place to go.” It seems inconceivable today that any human being would consider such a daring and ultimately catastrophic changing of allegiance, but Dresnock was one of six US military personal who have crossed the line following the conclusion of the Korean War.
After much interrogation, Dresnock and three others were used by the North Korean government for propaganda purposes until seeking asylum in the Soviet embassy. Unfortunately, the Soviets handed them back to their North Korean comrades, and following that came years of ideology lectures on Juche and Kim Il-sung. The four men featured in the documentary eventually assimilated themselves into North Korean culture, even becoming movie stars, playing the role of evil (American) versus good (North Korean).
The extraordinary story does not end there. Only Dresnock remains in North Korea, where he intends to see out the rest of his life, but fellow deserter Charles Robert Jenkins, now 72, is currently living with his wife Hitomi Soga in Japan.
Soga was abducted by North Korean agents in 1978 to train future spies in the Japanese language. She married Jenkins within six weeks of meeting him, and they had two daughters together. It is claimed in the documentary that Dresnock’s first wife (from Romania) was also kidnapped, something he refuses to comment on.
In 2002, Soga was one of five Japanese abductees allowed to return home, and was soon joined by Jenkins, who arrived via Indonesia. Jenkins was later court marshalled for desertion and given a 30-day sentence, before settling down with his wife in Japan.
Crossing the Line has been uploaded in full onto YouTube and is absolutely worth checking out.
Andrew Farrell works as an English language teacher in Korea.
