Film to Tell Story of American Defectors to North Korea
by Richardson ~ September 28th, 2006. Filed under: North Korea, U.S. Military. 
If you can make it to next months Pusan Film Festival you can see the premiere:
A US soldier who defected to communist North Korea more than 40 years ago will finally get to tell his story to the world in an upcoming film, executives said.
“Crossing the Line” covers the stories of four US army defectors to the North, including the last one known to be still in Pyongyang — Private First Class James Joseph Dresnok.
It will have its world premiere at South Korea’s Pusan film festival next month.
Dresnok crossed the heavily fortified border from South Korea to the North in August 1962 at age 21.
Fellow defector Charles Robert Jenkins, who was allowed to leave the North in 2004 with his wife Hitomi Soga, a Japanese who had been abducted by the communist state, also appears in the film.
The two other defectors are now dead.
“Crossing the Line” co-producer Nicholas Bonner and producer/director Daniel Gordon interviewed Dresnok several times in Pyongyang, said executive producer Paul Yi.
“We hope to show it at festivals throughout the world. We will see how the world premiere goes,” Yi told AFP, adding that the film currently has distributors arranged in South Korea and Japan.
“We expect there will be tremendous interest worldwide. I think in many ways it will be a shock to many people to hear the stories of all the four, and get a further glimpse into this secret place.”
Yi was reluctant to give too many details of “Crossing the Line” before the premiere and said he was unsure if Dresnok is still listed by the US military as a deserter.
Dresnok and Jenkins also once appeared together in a propaganda film made by the North called “Nameless Heroes.”
“They are human here,” Dresnok was quoted as telling the makers of “Crossing the Line” in a 2004 interview in the North Korean capital.
“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.”
The two dead defectors would be Pvt. Larry A. Abshier (defected May 1962, age 19) and Cpl. Jerry W. Parrish (defected December 1963, age 19).
October 4th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
Hmmm. I was never under the impression that the N. Koreans were anything but human. These defectors are traitors and (the living ones) are looking for a way to justify their actions - hence, their “discovery” that N. Koreans are human, and, not simply horned-beasts. The movie may in fact be interesting, but I hope to see the deserters brought to justice.
October 5th, 2006 at 10:58 am
A Soldier is a Soldier, no matter the side he fights for. My three assignments to Korea must be remarkable. No one ever told me the NKP had horns or red faces, or were anything other than Soldiers fighting on the other side. To be respected and if need be killed, for they were sure to do same to us. Sometimes it is that simple, no horns or red skin. Just bullits and red blood and hoping it won\’t come to that.
Justice? I just want to know what the damn fools were thinking! And if they got what they thought they would get.
October 8th, 2006 at 2:07 am
Damn … all our brainwashing of the troops and plans for world-wide hegemony … and that clever PFC Dresnock saw through it all!
Well, in PFC Dresnock’s case, I’m certainly relieved to hear that alls well that ends well.
Since he never did give us a forwarding address, we have been unable to mail him his back paychecks.
And, finally, Charles (I STILL can’t believe I was THAT frappin’ stupid) Jenkins sends all his best to ‘JJ’.