Defections to North Korea Common Until the 1970s, Including by US Soldiers...[Desperate Escapes②]

Lieutenant Colonel Yuunhak Defects to North Korea... 20th Division Pushed to Rear
Private Jojunhee Massacres Sixteen Comrades and Defects to North Korea
Six Defected US Soldiers Used as Propaganda Tools

Nowadays, people crossing the Military Demarcation Line move while facing south. However, in the past, there were many cases of defection to the North. The area along the Military Demarcation Line with frequent defections to the North and South was Yeokgokcheon in Cheorwon-gun, Gangwon-do. It became widely known due to Lieutenant Colonel Yoo Un-hak's defection to the North. He was the battalion commander of the 62nd Regiment, 20th Division, a unit guarding the barbed wire fence. In October 1977, he headed north with Private First Class Oh Bong-ju, a radio operator. The Blue House and the military were thrown into turmoil. He was the highest-ranking active-duty soldier to defect after the armistice agreement and the commander of a unit guarding the DMZ. There was concern that all military information, including tactics for guarding the barbed wire fence and the DMZ, could be handed over to North Korea. In fact, Lieutenant Colonel Yoo skillfully found a point where no landmines were planted and defected to the North.

President Park Chung-hee, upon receiving the report, ordered the 20th Division to be withdrawn to the rear and replaced by the 5th Division. That night, the 20th Division stationed in Cheorwon-gun and Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi-do, moved to Yangpyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do. Whether as a disciplinary measure for declining military morale or not, some units marched fully equipped. The Ministry of National Defense explained the reason for the defection as personal misconduct involving gambling debts and women. However, fellow officers had a different view. They claimed that he was burdened by a captain from the security unit defecting in the operational area a week earlier. That summer, a civilian military employee named Lee Jang-su flew a training military plane north over this area.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Another frequently mentioned defection case is Private First Class Jo Jun-hee. He was the main perpetrator of the largest murder case in the DMZ after the armistice. In June 1984, at a guard post (GP) in Sudong-myeon, Goseong-gun, Gangwon-do, he massacred sixteen fellow soldiers with rifle fire and grenade throws. During his escape across the Military Demarcation Line, four pursuing reconnaissance soldiers died after stepping on landmines. After crossing to the North, he was praised as a heroic defector and even held a press conference. Who he was did not matter. Only one standard applied: those who crossed over were traitors, and those who came over were righteous heroes.

Seo Jae-cheol, a senior researcher at the Green Korea United, wrote in his book Walking the Last Demilitarized Zone on Earth, "Nowadays, due to significant economic and social structural gaps, defections to the North are rare, but the situation was different in the past," adding, "Until the 1980s, South Korea was losing in the ideological competition with the North, so vague admiration for the North may have psychologically influenced people." According to research by the late Assemblyman Kang Chang-seong, 391 soldiers defected to the North from 1953 to 1979. From 1980 to 1989, only seventeen, and from 1990 to 1995, just three. The government announced that the total number of defectors after the armistice was about 600, with more than half estimated to be soldiers. Until 1966, conflicts in the DMZ were fewer, and military facilities were only barbed wire fences, so civilians also crossed over quite often. However, after the introduction of barbed wire fences and expansion of military facilities, civilian defections decreased significantly.

Private James Joseph Dressnock

The list of defectors also includes six U.S. soldiers. Most of them struggled to adapt to the North Korean system and died there. The first was Private Larry Allen. After being caught smoking marijuana and facing a military trial, he crossed the DMZ in Paju in May 1962. He was used as a propaganda tool, appearing in plays criticizing the United States, and died of a heart attack. The last U.S. soldier to defect was Private Joseph T. White, who crossed the western front line in Paju in August 1982. The most famous U.S. defector was Sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins. He defected in January 1965 after drinking ten cans of beer. He married a Japanese woman in North Korea and returned to Japan in 2004 during North Korea-Japan diplomatic negotiations. Private James Joseph Dresnok was also internationally known through the British documentary Crossing the Line.

Editor's NoteRecently, the topic in theaters is people crossing the Military Demarcation Line. In Hijacking, Yong-dae (Yeo Jin-gu) defects to the North, and in Escape, Gyu-nam (Lee Je-hoon) attempts to defect to the South. The different directions indicate changing times. The former is set in the early 1970s, when even in a year, fewer than ten defectors from the North were recorded. The government treated them as meritorious persons or defectors deserving honor. This long-standing trend was reversed in the mid-1990s, when the number of defectors increased exponentially. The main cause was economic changes in both Koreas. South Korea experienced rapid growth and greatly improved living conditions. In contrast, North Korea's planned economy collapsed under excessive political logic. Unprecedented natural disasters caused millions to starve. The North Korean regime itself named this period the "Arduous March," marking the worst hardship. The aftermath continues even now, risking lives like Gyu-nam. This article revisits their real history and examines the current situation.