Posted on 10/16/2006 3:21:49 PM PDT by MadIvan
UNREPENTANT in his support for communism, the last American defector living in North Korea spoke for the first time yesterday of his life and motivations for defecting.
“I’m telling you a story I never told anyone,” says James “Comrade Joe” Dresnok in Crossing the Line, the story of a rare convert to the ways of the world’s most isolated nation. “I have never regretted coming to the DPRK. I feel at home,” he says in the film which had its premiere at the South Korean Pusan International Festival.
Made by British film-makers in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the documentary portrays an underprivileged, despairing and desperate American who finds contentment in North Korea. However, the film hints that not all is well, and contrasts his testimony with that of US veterans.
Mr Dresnok, born in 1941, was the product of a broken home; the orphanage he was sent to after his parents’ divorce was “a living hell,” he says. Enlisting in the army at 17, he suffered a failed marriage before being posted to the Korean border.
There, between dangerous patrols, he spent his pay on prostitutes. Facing disciplinary action after visiting one girlfriend against orders, he defected north through minefields in 1962. “I didn’t care if I lived or died,” he says. Captured, he and three fellow US defectors were put to work creating propaganda material. “We took great pride in it,” says Mr Dresnok. “He’d found La-La land,” says a former US officer. Life under Asian communism was initially hard for the uneducated Southerner. “I didn’t want to stay,” he admits, citing racism. “I didn’t think I could adapt.” In 1966 he and his fellow defectors appealed for asylum at the Soviet Embassy in Pyongyang. Rejected, they underwent intense re-education. “I got to think like this, act like this,” he says. “I learnt their ideologies, their lofty virtues.” In 1972 the four received citizenship. In 1978 they achieved local fame, acting out the parts of evil capitalists in a spy series, Nameless Heroes. They also taught English.
The film contrasts the watery greys of Pyongyang with the rustic hues of Mr Dresnok’s native Virginia. He is seen fishing and drinking, visiting his tailor and celebrating his youngest son’s birthday in his small apartment — he has married twice in the North, to a Romanian and to a Togolese.
“I take pride in having a son at college,” he says; his blond son James, who speaks English with a Russian accent, is at foreign language school.
“In America, I don’t believe I could afford it,” he says. “The Government is going to take care of me until my dying day.”
These kids are going to be truly warped. When communism finally collapses in North Korea, they will be among those very dazed by the change.
Regards, Ivan
It could also be a tremendous economic boost for UPS.
Or is completely indifferent.
But me love you long time!
Would you kindly spell out which 2 to 30 millions you want to go?
The entire Democrat voter lists for starts.
Most Volvo owners.
People who wear sweat pants and tops on commercial flights.
Half the people I see driving.
Anyone who ever attended a John Dean 'Meetup.'
Anyone who drinks rice milk and insists it is milk.
Kos, from DailyKos.
Lama ranchers and all feret owners.
All of the Jimmy Carter clan, including all the small children carrying the Carter gene.
Anyone with the last name, Clinton.
I think you have a winning idea there.
"He's still a prat, however."
The best summary yet.
I cannot help but picture a bunch of Nawth K'reans with Southern drawls.
"and all feret owners. "
Hey, I owned a ferret. He was a cool pet despite the fact that he seemed to think he was a cat and not a ferret!
If I was you, I'd say it was a weasel.
Did you ever read any of the accounts of the experience Viktor Belenko, the guy who defected with a MiG-25, had when he first came to the U.S.? at first, he believed the supermarkets and department stores were CIA tricks, or stores just for elites. His minders took some time and showed him that there was at least one in every town, no matter how small, and he was astonished.
Yep, read a book about him over a decade ago.
I read his story in Readers' Digest as a yout'. Very compelling to my young mind; I vivdly remember the self-destruct button that he was told to press if his plane ever risked falling into enemy hands: His superiors told him it had a timer to allow a safe bail-out, but upon closer inspection it was found to be directly wired to a stick of dynamite.
Agreed. With all he has screwed up in his head, at least he has the character to act on his convictions. All the Hollywierd crybabies should be there beside him, demonstrating just how much better life is under communism.
This about says it all.
Great book.
That's funny. Except that it actually happens with some South Koreans.
Talk to a few Korean women who have married American soldiers who brought them back home when their enlistment ended, instead of spending 20-plus years in uniform. The ones who marry an American and spend years in the military learn generic English. Not so if they move to the Deep South shortly after marriage.
Hearing a native Korean tongue saying "ya'll" and "grits" (remember the trouble Koreans have with 'r' sounds) can be funny.
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