No turning back

“Crossing the Line” is a fascinating, tragic and somewhat disturbing documentary about James Joseph Dresnok, a US soldier who defected to North Korea in 1962. Together with three other American defectors, Joe Dresnok was used in the Communist regime's propaganda and even starred in a popular North Korean film, “Unsung Heroes”. In the film, Dresnok portrays an American villain! North Koreans still call him “Arthur”, the name of his character.

To this day, Dresnok remains in the “Democratic People's Republic of Korea” (DPRK), as North Korea is officially called. Another defector, Charles Robert Jenkins, has managed to return to the United States. Jenkins has alleged that Dresnok habitually beat up the other defectors on behalf of their DPRK handlers. Jenkins further claims that the women the defectors married in North Korea were kidnapped by DPRK agents in other countries and brought to North Korea against their will. We do know that this was true of Jenkin's own wife (who is Japanese). The documentary mentions Jenkins' allegations and Dresnok's vehement denials.

While Dresnok does his best to sound as an ordinary Joe, he occasionally switches to propaganda mode, praising the “Great Leader” (Kim Il Sung), attacking the Russians (who are considered weak and treacherous by the North Korean regime for abandoning Communism) and extolling the virtues of Juche (the official ideology of the DPRK). Occasionally, it surfaces that Dresnok's stay in the Great Leader's paradise wasn't entirely unproblematic. In 1966, he and the other defectors attempted to leave the country by seeking asylum at the Soviet embassy (presumably, no Western nation had an embassy in Pyongyang at the time). The attempt failed, and the Americans were subject to North Korean Communist “re-education” for years afterwards. It's also obvious that all defectors have native handlers who follow them wherever they go. On the “plus” side, Dresnok's children study at the Pyongyang University, and the regime gave the family sufficient food rations during the famine of the 1990's, which killed millions of ordinary North Koreans.

Joe Dresnok gives a tragic impression. It's difficult to hate the guy (at least for me – I can understand that his buddies in the army might feel different about it). He had a tough childhood and didn't defect for ideological reasons, but for purely personal ones. Once he had crossed the DMZ, there was no turning back. “Arthur” had no other choice but to adapt to life in the world's most authoritarian and bizarre state. All things considered, he seems to be doing pretty well. His fellow defector Jenkins was also lucky. Due to widespread sympathy in Japan for his case, Jenkins received a light sentence when returning to the United States.

Since the documentary was shot in North Korea, with the permission of the proper authorities, it does have a “neutral” or even DPRK-ish slant which gets annoying at times. Overall, however, I considered it extremely interesting. I therefore give it four stars.