Last US defector in North Korea speaks
In the 1960s four US soldiers separately defected to North Korea, and were little heard from again.
Now one -- the last known former American GI left in the country -- has spoken for the first time to British documentary-makers.
James Dresnok is something of a celebrity around the North Korean capital Pyongyang, his home for the last 44 years.
Unmissable thanks to his 6ft 5in height and bulky frame, the 64-year-old has appeared in North Korean films, taught English at university and been a propaganda hero for the Communist nation.
"I have never regretted coming to [North Korea]. I feel at home," he says, in the documentary Crossing the Line, which premiered at the US Sundance Film Festival on Monday.
James Dresnok was a 21-year-old army private when he decided to leave his post in South Korea one August afternoon in 1962 to cross into the North.
Three months earlier, Private Larry Abshier had become the first known US soldier to defect to the North, while patrolling the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas.
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Now one -- the last known former American GI left in the country -- has spoken for the first time to British documentary-makers.
James Dresnok is something of a celebrity around the North Korean capital Pyongyang, his home for the last 44 years.
Unmissable thanks to his 6ft 5in height and bulky frame, the 64-year-old has appeared in North Korean films, taught English at university and been a propaganda hero for the Communist nation.
"I have never regretted coming to [North Korea]. I feel at home," he says, in the documentary Crossing the Line, which premiered at the US Sundance Film Festival on Monday.
James Dresnok was a 21-year-old army private when he decided to leave his post in South Korea one August afternoon in 1962 to cross into the North.
Three months earlier, Private Larry Abshier had become the first known US soldier to defect to the North, while patrolling the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas.