Factbox-US Soldier in North Korea Not the First to Flee to the Secretive State

(Reuters) – The U.S. navy recognized a soldier who made an unauthorised crossing into North Korea on Tuesday as Non-public Travis T. King and stated he was going through disciplinary motion earlier than he fled throughout a tour of the closely fortified border space.

He’s believed to be in custody within the North, however his precise motive and different particulars stay unclear.

Makes an attempt by U.S. troopers stationed in South Korea to abandon or defect to the communist state are uncommon, however listed below are some instances which have occurred for the reason that 1950-1953 Korean Conflict ended with an armistice quite than a peace treaty:

– Joseph T. White shot off the lock on a gate main into the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the Koreas whereas a U.S. soldier stationed in South Korea in 1982, earlier than surrendering to North Korean troops, in line with an account printed by the Korea Instances.

The North claimed he had defected, although Pyongyang refused a request by the United Nations Command to fulfill him. A U.S. navy spokesman later stated an investigation indicated that White crossed into North Korea of his personal free will. In a video launched by the North, White denounced the USA and praised North Korea and its then chief Kim Il-Sung.

White’s mother and father later acquired a handwritten letter believed to be from their son, wherein he stated he was working as a instructor and comfortable within the North, the Washington Submit reported. White drowned in a swimming accident within the North in 1985, in line with a media report, citing info acquired by his mother and father.

– Charles Robert Jenkins walked into North Korea when on patrol on the DMZ in 1965. He later expressed remorse for fleeing and defined at his court docket marital that his motive was to keep away from hazardous responsibility in South Korea and fight in Vietnam. Jenkins stated he had drunk 10 beers earlier than the incident.

Throughout his close to 4 many years within the North, he taught English and in addition portrayed a U.S. spy in a propaganda movie. Jenkins married Hitomi Soga, a Japanese lady kidnapped by Pyongyang. Soga was allowed to return to Japan in 2002 and Jenkins joined her with their two daughters in 2004. Jenkins died in 2017.

– James Joseph Dresnok was a 21-year previous U.S. military personal stationed in South Korea in 1962 when he fled to the North. Dealing with a court docket martial for skipping responsibility, Dresnok describes in a movie about his life how he bolted throughout the DMZ, by way of a minefield. Dresnok and three fellow American navy defectors together with Jenkins, Jerry Wayne Parrish and Larry Allen Abshier lived in relative isolation for years earlier than turning into stars of North Korean cinema by depicting evil People in propaganda motion pictures promoted by then chief Kim Jong-Il. Stories, citing Dresnok’s sons, say he died in Pyongyang in 2016.

(Reporting by Ed Davies in Sydney; Modifying by Lincoln Feast)

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