Posted: 6/21/2010 6:38:47 AM EDT
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I watched this documentary via Netflix Streaming over the weekend, it's a British documentary which focuses mainly on James Dresnok, a US Army PFC who defected to North Korea in 1962, after the end of the Korean War. I had never heard of people defecting to the DPRK, only the other way around.
From what I got out of the documentary, Dresnok had a shitty upbringing, joined the Army at 17, 1st wife cheated on him while he was on a 2 year tour in Germany, and left with nothing he decided to reenlist and got sent to S. Korea. It seems like the main reasons he defected was because he was angry that he wasn't allowed a pass to see a prostitute in the 'ville and defied his superior officer and went anyway...knowing that he was in a world of hurt he decided to defect. A real shitbag who couldn't hack it in the Army and decided to walk over to the other side of the DMZ. I thought it was really interesting to see how much he bought into the propaganda, it seemed like every thing he said started with "The Great Leader..." and he was so thankful to the DPRK government that he was given his rations even while millions of native Koreans were dying of starvation. Apparently he was a huge star along with several other American defectors in the N. Korean propaganda machine. |
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Quoted:
I wonder how long he was there before he started thinking, "Uh, I think I've made a mistake. A big mistake." Well, they[4 American defectors] actually tried to claim asylum at the Soviet embassy, lulz. Turns out the Soviets weren't that friendly and turned them right back over the N. Koreans. |