Last Surviving US Defector to North Korea Is Dead

He might have been the most famous American in North Korea. But now James "Joe" Dresnok, a US soldier who defected after fighting in the Korean War, is dead, reports the Guardian

His two Korean-born sons made the news public in a government video, saying their father had suffered a stroke and died at age 74. Dresnok was one of a few American soldiers to cross into North Korea in 1962, and he went on to star in propaganda films, generally as the evil American. 

The BBC made a documentary about him in 2006 called Crossing the Line in which he said he had no regrets about his defection. "I wouldn't trade it for nothin,'" the native of Richmond, Va., says in the video. (The film is on YouTube. CBS' 60 Minutes also did a feature on Dresnok, which can be seen here.) The few other Americans who defected are believed to have died or left the country.

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