To Avoid Deployment to Vietnam, While Reporting... Past Cases of Americans Defecting to North Korea and Being Detained

A U.S. military service member crossed into North Korea on the 18th (local time) while touring the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjom, drawing attention to past cases of Americans who voluntarily defected to North Korea.

The U.S. Department of Defense previously identified a total of six U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea who defected to North Korea between 1962 and 1982.

Sergeant Robert Jenkins is the most widely known case. Jenkins, serving in the U.S. military in South Korea in 1965, deserted while stationed in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) due to concerns about being deployed to the Vietnam War and crossed into North Korea. North Korea used him for anti-American propaganda, and Jenkins married Hitomi Soga, a Japanese abduction victim, with whom he had two daughters in 1980. Later, North Korea allowed Jenkins to go to Japan in 2004 to follow his wife, who had returned to her home country first. After receiving a 30-day confinement sentence from a U.S. military court, he lived in Niigata Prefecture, his wife's hometown, and passed away in 2017 at the age of 77.

In 1982, Private First Class Joseph White of the U.S. Army 2nd Division crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) carrying an M16 rifle shortly after a dawn shift change. Numerous North Korean propaganda booklets and newspaper articles were found among White's belongings. North Korean authorities announced that White drowned while swimming in the Cheongcheon River three years after his defection.

There have also been many cases of Americans forcibly detained in North Korea.

In March 2009, American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were detained in North Korea while reporting near the North Korea-China border. Former President Bill Clinton visited North Korea in August of the same year, and they were flown back to the U.S. on a chartered plane.

In November 2012, Korean-American Kenneth Bae (Korean name Bae Junho) entered North Korea and was detained. In April 2013, he was sentenced to 15 years of labor reform for "anti-Republic hostile acts." Matthew Miller, from California, who entered in April 2014, was also sentenced to six years of labor reform on the same charges. They were able to return to the U.S. in November 2014, thanks to James Clapper, then Director of National Intelligence (DNI), who visited North Korea as a special envoy of President Barack Obama.

There have been tragic outcomes as well. In January 2016, American college student Otto Warmbier, who visited North Korea on a group tour, was arrested on charges of attempting to steal propaganda materials and sentenced to 15 years of labor reform, being detained for 17 months. Joseph Yun, the U.S. State Department's Special Representative for North Korea Policy, visited Pyongyang in June 2017 with medical personnel to bring Warmbier back. However, Warmbier was released in a coma and died six days after returning to the U.S. This incident sparked strong public calls within the U.S. to punish North Korea.

Meanwhile, on the 18th (local time), the U.S. Department of Defense officially confirmed that a U.S. service member deliberately defected to North Korea while touring the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjom. The soldier, a Private First Class in his early 20s named Travis King, was reportedly arrested on assault charges and recently released from a South Korean prison. He was scheduled to be transferred to Fort Bliss, Texas, for further disciplinary action but crossed the Military Demarcation Line without authorization.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.