It will sound shocking that an American soldier could
defect, across the DMZ into North Korea in 1962 and live a relatively stable
and physically comfortable life, but the documentary “Crossing the Line” (2006)
by Daniel Gordon (translated “A Blue-Eyed Pyongyang Citizen” or “푸른 눈의 평양시민”
in Korean), and narrated by Christian Slater, proves just that point.
The documentary focuses on the narrative of
James Joseph Dresnok (or “Joe Dresnok”) who, raised near Richmond VA from a
broken home, joined the Army with little education. After a tour in West
Germany, he was stationed in the DMZ. He
falsified some papers to go on pass, and when threatened with court-martial, he
went AWOL and crossed the border and through mine fields.
Dresnok was one of four defectors. Having married and divorced once already, he
married a Romanian woman and had (white) sons who would be raised as North
Korean but in somewhat privileged circumstances in the radical communist state.
Another defector, Charles Robert Jenkins, married a woman who had been
kidnapped by North Koreans from Japan.
When Jenkins went to Japan, he was arrested and prosecuted for
desertion.
Dresnok got his rice and other food rations
over all the years (he was about 66 when the film was shot) while rural
peasants (“the proles”) starved.
There are many shots of Pyongyang (and of the
DMZ). There is an iconic sculpture
showing the worker, peasant, intellectual.
The streets look empty among high-rise buildings. This could be another planet.
The film, from the UK, is distributed by Kino
(and is on Netflix DVD).
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