Well, I’m Glad Someone Takes Care of You

by Robert Koehler on September 10, 2008

Mark Seddon of The Guardian talks with James Dresnok, everyone’s favorite remaining American defector to North Korea.

(HT to reader)

{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Railwaycharm September 10, 2008 at 2:58 pm: I hope he chokes on Dear Leader’s deep wad.
2 red sparrow September 10, 2008 at 4:04 pm: Sounds like he was a troubled youth who made some bad choices and I believe he would have wound up in a revolving door in and out of incarceration had he not defected.
3 Billy September 10, 2008 at 5:08 pm: I always thought he was one of those radical ESL teachers out to corner the market…..
4 Billy September 10, 2008 at 5:09 pm: sorry, there should have been a on that, my bad, got distracted at the keyboard.
5 NES (BANNED SOCKPUPPET TROLL!!!) September 10, 2008 at 6:16 pm: Thanks for clarifying that, Billy. I was just about to type an angry response, but I’m OK now that I know you were only joking.
6 Mizar5 September 10, 2008 at 10:27 pm: Sad story of a wasted life.
7 Mizar5 September 10, 2008 at 10:28 pm: Kurt Vonnegut might have written this one.
8 dokdoforever September 10, 2008 at 11:29 pm: Not a fun place to defect to. Anyone know when the last US soldier defected to North Korea?
9 McGenghis September 10, 2008 at 11:58 pm: Conversation with the father of the young girl who is staying with my family in Nova Scotia (ostensibly to learn English, but in reality getting a crash course in limey):
Robbie: So Lee Myeong-bak is no good?
KJ: Yeah, he’s a bad guy. No moo-hyun is a good guy, Kim Jeong-Il is a good guy…
Robbie: (not about to raise questions, after all, he paid for the agassis at the noreabang) but doesn’t Mr Bak have some kind of plan?
KJ: Don’t support him. You probably support him. He is more American. ( I got my badge in Canadian underminery at a young age) Maybe you read the joongang?
Robbie: Sure, I have nothing more to say about politics. Hey, agassi, please pretend my voice is from heaven.

And the evening ended perfectly.
10 soondae September 11, 2008 at 12:19 am: His wife had decided to leave him for another man after his two-year posting in Germany, which “made me not care about my life,” he says. “I wanted to go to the most dangerous place in the world.”

I guess he’s a ‘do-er’.
11 NewYorkTom September 11, 2008 at 12:22 am: We’ll never know but chances are his life back in the states wouldnt have been much better.
12 Baek du boy September 11, 2008 at 8:25 am: #8 As far as I know there were four who defected and managed some kind of ‘existence’ in the north Korean regime.

I think Jenkins may have been the last out of the four. He defected in 1965.

Dresnok is the last of the four left, although the Children of the other defectors still live there (excluding Jenkins and family).
13 Bipolar Mindscrew September 11, 2008 at 10:26 am: …and why do people call it the “Hermit Kingdom” when it’s so obviously multicultural and accepting of other cultures?
14 NES (BANNED SOCKPUPPET TROLL!!!) September 11, 2008 at 11:16 am: Sad story of a wasted life.

What is Mizar’s Logic.

Biography tag lines for five-hundred, Alex.