SEOUL: The only US soldier known still to be living in North Korea after defecting more than five decades ago died last year pledging loyalty to the “great leader Kim Jong-Un,” his sons said.
James Joseph Dresnok was among just a handful of American servicemen to desert following the 1950-53 Korean War, crossing the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone in 1962.
He went on to appear in North Korean propaganda films and was believed to be the last US military defector in the country, the others all having died or been allowed to leave.
In a video interview posted on the state-run Uriminzokkiri website, Ted and James Dresnok, his two adult sons, confirmed that their father suffered a fatal stroke in November last year.
“Our father was in the arms of the republic and received only the love and care of the party until his passing at age 74,” said Ted Dresnok, the elder of the two.
Brown-haired and hazel-eyed, he wore a Korean People’s Army uniform in the video like his brother, adorned with a badge depicting the North’s founder Kim Il-Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong-Il.
Both men were born in North Korea and spoke Korean with a thick Northern accent.
“Our father asked us to render devoted service to our great leader Kim Jong-Un,” said Ted Dresnok, who also goes by the Korean name Hong Soon-Chol.
Their comments were similar to those of ordinary North Koreans, who normally only ever express officially approved sentiments when speaking for a foreign audience.
It was the brothers’ second appearance on the program, after they praised the country in a May 2016 interview.
Their mother is said to have been Doina Bumbea, a Romanian whose family say she was kidnapped by Pyongyang.
In a searing 2014 report on human rights in North Korea, a UN commission of inquiry said: “Women abducted from Europe, the Middle East and Asia were subjected to forced marriages with men from other countries to prevent liaisons on their part with ethnic Korean women that could result in interracial children.”
Another American soldier defector, Charles Jenkins, married Japanese abductee Hitomi Soga within weeks of meeting her in the North.
Soga was allowed to leave in 2002, and Jenkins and their two daughters followed suit two years later. He was court-martialled for desertion and given a 30-day custodial sentence. They now live on a small Japanese island where he makes a living selling rice crackers.
Four other post-1953 US army deserters are all believed to have died in the North.
Reports of Dresnok’s death emerged earlier this year but the brothers’ video is the first official confirmation.
Tensions have been mounting in the region since Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month that appeared to bring much of the US within range.
That sparked a volley of threats between Pyongyang and Washington, with President Donald Trump warning the North of “fire and fury” while Pyongyang threatened to fire a salvo of missiles toward the US territory of Guam.
Ted Dresnok said the “US imperialists” were raising “war hysteria madness” while knowing little about the North’s military and its people.
If war breaks out, he said, “We will not miss the opportunity and wipe the land of the US from the earth forever.”
In the video, posted Friday, his brother James, whose Korean name is Hong Chol, added: “We have our dear supreme commander Kim Jong-Un. If he is by our side, our victory is certain.”
The late James Dresnok, known as Joe, was 21, newly divorced and reportedly facing a court-martial when he made his way through the minefields that litter the DMZ to reach North Korea.
He was the subject of a 2006 British documentary, “Crossing the Line,” which was nominated for a Grand Jury prize at the Sundance film festival.
In it he expressed satisfaction with his life in Pyongyang, where citizens enjoy better standards of living than people elsewhere in the isolated country.
Co-director Nick Bonner told AFP: “Joe seemed to have accepted he was going to remain in the north due to politics and ill health.
“Also his memory of life in the US was not so rosy, having grown up in an orphanage and not established himself.”
Dresnok once told a CBS interview he would not leave the North even if “you put a billion damn dollars of gold on the table.”
Sons of US defector to N. Korea confirm his death
Sons of US defector to N. Korea confirm his death
Trump says Australia will grant asylum to Iran women footballers
MIAMI: US President Donald Trump said Monday that Australia had agreed to grant asylum to some of Iran’s visiting women’s football team, amid fears they could face retaliation back home for not singing the national anthem before a match.
The gesture ahead of the team’s Asian Cup match against South Korea last week was seen by many as an act of defiance against the Islamic republic just two days after the United States and Israel attacked it.
“I just spoke to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, of Australia, concerning the Iranian National Women’s Soccer Team. He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of,” Trump said Monday on his Truth Social network, less than two hours after an initial post urging Australia to take them in.
Trump added that “some, however, feel they must go back because they are worried about the safety of their families, including threats to those family members if they don’t return.”
There was no immediate comment from the Australian government, which has so far declined to say whether it could offer the players asylum.
Asked about their case on Sunday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia “stands in solidarity” with the people of Iran.
The son of Iran’s late shah, US-based Reza Pahlavi, warned on Monday that the refusal to sing the anthem could have “dire consequences,” and urged Australia to offer the team protection.
Trump then weighed in, pressing Albanese to “give ASYLUM” to the team and adding: “The US will take them if you won’t.”
“Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman’s Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed,” the US leader said on Truth Social.
Pahlavi, who has not returned to Iran since before the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the monarchy, has billed himself as the man to lead a democratic transition to a secular Iran as the theocratic regime fights to survive.
Politicians, human rights activists and even “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling have also called for the team to be offered official protection.
“Please, protect these young women,” Rowling said in a post on social media.
‘Save our girls’
A presenter on Iranian state TV had branded the players “wartime traitors” after they stood motionless during the anthem before their match against South Korea.
In subsequent games, the players saluted and sang.
Crowds gathered outside the Gold Coast stadium where the side played their last match over the weekend, banging drums and shouting “regime change for Iran.”
They then surrounded the Iranian team bus, chanting “let them go” and “save our girls.”
On Monday, an AFP journalist saw members of the team speaking on phones from their balcony of their hotel.
Asked about the possibility of granted asylum, a spokesperson for Australia’s Home Affairs department told AFP earlier it “cannot comment on the circumstances of individuals.”
Amnesty International campaigner Zaki Haidari said they faced persecution, or worse, if they were sent home.
“Some of these team members probably have had their families already threatened,” Haidari told AFP.
“Them going back... who knows what sort of punishment they will receive?“
Despite being heavily monitored, the side would have a “small window of opportunity” to seek asylum at the airport, he said.
Iran’s embassy in Australia did not respond to a request for comment.
