By Ed Davies
(Reuters) -The U.S. military identified a&nbsp;soldier&nbsp;who made an unauthorised crossing into&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;on Tuesday as Private Travis T. King and said he was facing disciplinary action before he fled during a tour of the heavily fortified border area.
He is believed to be in custody in the&nbsp;North, but his exact motive and other details remain unclear.
Attempts by U.S.&nbsp;soldiers stationed in South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;to desert or defect to the communist&nbsp;state&nbsp;are rare, but here are some cases that have occurred since the 1950-1953&nbsp;Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty:
- Joseph T. White shot off the lock on a gate leading into the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the&nbsp;Koreas while a U.S.&nbsp;soldier&nbsp;stationed in South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;in 1982, before surrendering to&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korean troops, according to an account published by the&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;Times.
The&nbsp;North&nbsp;claimed he had defected, though Pyongyang refused a request by the United Nations Command to meet him. A U.S. military spokesman later said an investigation indicated that White crossed into&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;of his own free will. In a video released by the&nbsp;North, White denounced the United&nbsp;States and praised&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;and its then leader Kim Il-Sung.
White's parents later received a handwritten letter believed to be from their son, in which he said he was working as a teacher and happy in the&nbsp;North, the Washington Post reported. White drowned in a swimming accident in the&nbsp;North&nbsp;in 1985, according to a media report, citing information received by his parents.
- Charles Robert Jenkins walked into&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;when on patrol on the DMZ in 1965. He later expressed regret for&nbsp;fleeing and explained at his court marital that his motive was to avoid hazardous&nbsp;duty in South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;and combat in Vietnam. Jenkins said he had drunk 10 beers before the incident.
During his near four decades in the&nbsp;North, he taught English and also portrayed a U.S. spy in a propaganda film. Jenkins married Hitomi Soga, a Japanese woman abducted by Pyongyang. Soga was allowed to return to Japan in 2002 and Jenkins joined her with their two daughters in 2004. Jenkins died in 2017.
- James Joseph Dresnok was a 21-year old U.S. army private stationed in South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;in 1962 when he fled to the&nbsp;North. Facing a court martial for skipping duty, Dresnok describes in a film about his life how he bolted across the DMZ, through a minefield. Dresnok and three fellow American military defectors including Jenkins, Jerry Wayne Parrish and Larry Allen Abshier lived in relative isolation for years before becoming stars of&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korean cinema by depicting evil Americans in propaganda movies promoted by then leader Kim Jong-Il. Reports, citing Dresnok's sons, say he died in Pyongyang in 2016.
(Reporting by Ed Davies in Sydney; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

you might like

US soldier in North Korea not the first to flee to the secretive state