An American defector to North Korea wants to tell his story to put a human face on the state, which he believes is unfairly vilified abroad, British filmmakers said.
Army private James Dresnok, 63, who fled to the Stalinist nation more than 40 years ago, wants to paint a positive picture of ordinary people there, they said.
"They are human here," Dresnok told the filmmakers, according to their news release.
"The US military teaches you they are evil Communists, they have horns, they have fangs, they have red faces. I never believed such bullshit. Of course, there is an ideological difference, but that is the only difference."
Filmmaker Nicholas Bonner, who met Dresnok in June, said the North Korean government had arranged the interview but did not stage-manage the defec-tor's comments.
Bonner said Dresnok appeared to be enjoying a "simple life" working as a part-time English teacher in Pyongyang.
"He seems extremely happy there. He hasn't got any great yearning to get out of there," Bonner said in Beijing this week.
International attention recently has focused on Charles Jenkins, another US soldier who crossed the border in the 1960s while on patrol on the South Korean side.
Jenkins, 64, last month was allowed to leave North Korea to be reunited with his Japanese wife, who was abducted by Pyongyang agents in 1978.
But few knew there were others, and Dresnok, from Virginia, is the last surviving US defector in the reclusive country.
"The most amazing thing is everyone is focused on Jenkins ... (but) here's Dresnok ... a man who has nothing known about him," Bonner said.
"People certainly didn't know there's an American who likes his country but is still there (in North Korea)."
Dresnok and Jenkins, who defected in 1962 and 1965 respectively, were not the only American soldiers who crossed the 38th Parallel in the 1960s after the 1950-53 Korean War.
Two others -- Private Larry Allen Abshier and Corporal Jerry Wayne Parish -- died of natural causes in North Korea, according to Jenkins and Dresnok.
In 1979 and 1982, US soldiers Roy Chung and Joseph White also defected. Bonner said he heard they also died of natural causes.
The filmmakers hope that with Dresnok's help they can find the deceased men's families in North Korea and tell the stories of all six defectors in the film, to be titled "Crossing the Line."
"Nobody knows about them," Bonner said, adding Jenkins only came to prominence because of the abduction cases, where North Korea kidnapped Japanese citi-zens to help train spies.
Dresnok told the filmmakers he had originally planned to defect to Russia when he crossed the border but later decided to stay in North Korea.
Speaking of his early years in the country, Dresnok said: "We were under the supervision of the North Korean military. They took good care of us and they requested us to teach English to military personnel."
"I find it more convenient to live among peaceful people, living a simple life," he said.
Even gaining entry to the highly secretive country is difficult, but the British film company has already shot two films there, including an award-winning documentary on the North Korean soccer team that beat Italy in the 1966 World Cup.
"I think they realize we take a fairly, as much as possible, neutral point of view. We ask the questions and let the viewers figure things out for themselves," Bonner said. "We've never had anything censored, never had anything restricted."
He and Gordon hope to begin filming the defectors' stories in September following formal government approval.
"I hope people will just see their [the defectors'] side of the story when the film comes out," Bonner said, denying any political motives for the film.
The US embassy in Beijing did not have an immediate comment and directed questions to the US Defense Department.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
‘PLAINLY ERRONEOUS’: The justice department appealed a Trump-appointed judge’s blocking of the release of a report into election interference by the incoming president US Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the federal cases against US president-elect Donald Trump on charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat and mishandling of classified documents, has resigned after submitting his investigative report on Trump, an expected move that came amid legal wrangling over how much of that document can be made public in the days ahead. The US Department of Justice disclosed Smith’s departure in a footnote of a court filing on Saturday, saying he had resigned one day earlier. The resignation, 10 days before Trump is inaugurated, follows the conclusion of two unsuccessful criminal prosecutions
RSS