SEOUL: The only US soldier known still to be living in North Korea after defecting more than five decades ago died last year pledging loyalty to the “great leader Kim Jong-Un,” his sons said.
James Joseph Dresnok was among just a handful of American servicemen to desert following the 1950-53 Korean War, crossing the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone in 1962.
He went on to appear in North Korean propaganda films and was believed to be the last US military defector in the country, the others all having died or been allowed to leave.
In a video interview posted on the state-run Uriminzokkiri website, Ted and James Dresnok, his two adult sons, confirmed that their father suffered a fatal stroke in November last year.
“Our father was in the arms of the republic and received only the love and care of the party until his passing at age 74,” said Ted Dresnok, the elder of the two.
Brown-haired and hazel-eyed, he wore a Korean People’s Army uniform in the video like his brother, adorned with a badge depicting the North’s founder Kim Il-Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong-Il.
Both men were born in North Korea and spoke Korean with a thick Northern accent.
“Our father asked us to render devoted service to our great leader Kim Jong-Un,” said Ted Dresnok, who also goes by the Korean name Hong Soon-Chol.
Their comments were similar to those of ordinary North Koreans, who normally only ever express officially approved sentiments when speaking for a foreign audience.
It was the brothers’ second appearance on the program, after they praised the country in a May 2016 interview.
Their mother is said to have been Doina Bumbea, a Romanian whose family say she was kidnapped by Pyongyang.
In a searing 2014 report on human rights in North Korea, a UN commission of inquiry said: “Women abducted from Europe, the Middle East and Asia were subjected to forced marriages with men from other countries to prevent liaisons on their part with ethnic Korean women that could result in interracial children.”
Another American soldier defector, Charles Jenkins, married Japanese abductee Hitomi Soga within weeks of meeting her in the North.
Soga was allowed to leave in 2002, and Jenkins and their two daughters followed suit two years later. He was court-martialled for desertion and given a 30-day custodial sentence. They now live on a small Japanese island where he makes a living selling rice crackers.
Four other post-1953 US army deserters are all believed to have died in the North.
Reports of Dresnok’s death emerged earlier this year but the brothers’ video is the first official confirmation.
Tensions have been mounting in the region since Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month that appeared to bring much of the US within range.
That sparked a volley of threats between Pyongyang and Washington, with President Donald Trump warning the North of “fire and fury” while Pyongyang threatened to fire a salvo of missiles toward the US territory of Guam.
Ted Dresnok said the “US imperialists” were raising “war hysteria madness” while knowing little about the North’s military and its people.
If war breaks out, he said, “We will not miss the opportunity and wipe the land of the US from the earth forever.”
In the video, posted Friday, his brother James, whose Korean name is Hong Chol, added: “We have our dear supreme commander Kim Jong-Un. If he is by our side, our victory is certain.”
The late James Dresnok, known as Joe, was 21, newly divorced and reportedly facing a court-martial when he made his way through the minefields that litter the DMZ to reach North Korea.
He was the subject of a 2006 British documentary, “Crossing the Line,” which was nominated for a Grand Jury prize at the Sundance film festival.
In it he expressed satisfaction with his life in Pyongyang, where citizens enjoy better standards of living than people elsewhere in the isolated country.
Co-director Nick Bonner told AFP: “Joe seemed to have accepted he was going to remain in the north due to politics and ill health.
“Also his memory of life in the US was not so rosy, having grown up in an orphanage and not established himself.”
Dresnok once told a CBS interview he would not leave the North even if “you put a billion damn dollars of gold on the table.”
Sons of US defector to N. Korea confirm his death
Sons of US defector to N. Korea confirm his death
British PM Starmer stresses commitment to free trade in talks with Trump, Downing Street says
- UK seeking deal with Trump after he imposed 10 percent tariffs on most imports of British goods to the US
- The two leaders also addressed the situations in Ukraine and Iran, and recent actions against the Houthis in Yemen
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke with US President Donald Trump, discussing trade between the two nations among other subjects including the situation in Ukraine and Iran, a Downing Street spokesperson said on Friday.
Britain is hoping to strike a deal with Trump after he imposed 10 percent tariffs on most imports of British goods to the United States and a higher 25 percent rate on imports of cars, steel and aluminum.
“The leaders began by discussing the ongoing and productive discussions between the UK and US on trade,” the spokesperson said, adding that Starmer emphasized his commitment to free trade while safeguarding national interests.
Starmer and Trump also addressed the situations in Ukraine and Iran, and recent actions against the Houthis in Yemen, the spokesperson from the prime minister’s office said.
Lawsuit challenges Trump administration crackdown on international students
- About 1,100 students at more than 170 colleges, universities and university systems have been affected since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements, correspondence with school officials and court records
WASHINGTON: A class action lawsuit filed Friday asks a federal court to reinstate the legal status of international students caught up in a Trump administration crackdown that has left more than a thousand fearful of deportation.
The suit filed by several American Civil Liberties Union affiliates seeks to represent more than 100 students in New England and Puerto Rico.
“International students are a vital community in our state’s universities, and no administration should be allowed to circumvent the law to unilaterally strip students of status, disrupt their studies, and put them at risk of deportation,” said Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the ACLU of New Hampshire.
At schools around the country, students have seen their visas revoked or their legal status terminated, typically with little notice.
About 1,100 students at more than 170 colleges, universities and university systems have been affected since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements, correspondence with school officials and court records. The AP is working to confirm reports of hundreds more students affected.
Students have filed other lawsuits arguing they were denied due process. Federal judges have granted temporary restraining orders in New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Montana, shielding students from efforts to remove them from the US.
Plaintiffs in the new lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Hampshire, learned without warning their F-1 student statuses had been terminated, leaving in doubt their ability to stay in the country and finish their studies, according to the complaint.
One of them, Manikanta Pasula of India, was on the brink of getting his master’s in computer science at Rivier University in New Hampshire and applying to remain in the country through a work program for international students. Hangrui Zhang of China had come to the US for a Ph.D. program in electronic and computer science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. Now, he cannot work as a research assistant, which was his only source of income, the complaint said.
The government did not give notice it is required to provide before terminating a foreign student’s legal status, the lawyers said.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department was revoking visas held by visitors who were acting counter to national interests, including some who protested Israel’s war in Gaza and those who face criminal charges.
In some high-profile cases, such as that involving Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, the Trump administration has cited involvement in pro-Palestinian activism as a rationale for deportation.
But colleges say most students affected by visa revocations played no role in those protests. Many are being singled out over minor infractions such as traffic violations that occurred long ago, and in some cases the reason is unclear, colleges say.
Russia sees progress in Ukraine peace talks but US relations strained
- President Trump hints abandoning peace effort “if one of the two parties makes it very difficult”
- Kremlin spokesman cites moratorium on strikes against energy infrastructure as progress
MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Friday that some progress had already been made in talks about a possible peace settlement to end the war in Ukraine but that contacts were rather complicated with the United States.
“Contacts are quite complicated, because, naturally, the topic is not an easy one,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“Russia is committed to resolving this conflict, ensuring its own interests, and is open to dialogue. We continue to do this.”
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he wanted to achieve a peace deal quickly, but could not be involved in the search for a settlement indefinitely “if one of the two parties makes it very difficult.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking earlier in Paris after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders, said the sides had just days to show progress or Washington would abandon its efforts.
Asked if the United States could withdraw from the search for a peace settlement in Ukraine, Peskov said that was a question for Washington.
“We believe that some progress can already be noted,” Peskov said, citing a temporary moratorium on strikes against energy infrastructure, though he said Ukraine had not adhered to it.
“Therefore, certain developments have already been achieved, but, of course, there are still many complex discussions ahead.”
Peskov, when asked if the energy moratorium was over, said that it had already been a month but that no orders from the president had been received to change Russia’s position.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council and a representative of Russian hawks, expressed approval for the US remarks on the X social media platform.
“American officials have said that if there is no progress on the Ukrainian case, the United States will wash its hands of it. Wisely,” Medvedev wrote in English. “And the EU should do the same. Then Russia will figure it out faster.”
10,000 pages of records about Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 assassination are released, on Trump’s order
WASHINGTON: About 10,000 pages of records related to the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were released Friday, including handwritten notes by the gunman, who said the Democratic presidential candidate “must be disposed of” and acknowledged an obsession with killing him.
Many of the files had been made public previously, while others had not been digitized and sat for decades in federal government storage facilities. Their release continued the disclosure of historical investigation documents ordered by President Donald Trump.
Kennedy was fatally shot on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after giving a speech celebrating his victory in California’s presidential primary. His assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving life in prison.
The files included pictures of handwritten notes by Sirhan.
“RFK must be disposed of like his brother was,” read the writing on the outside of an empty envelope, referring to Kennedy’s older brother, President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. The return address was from the district director of the Internal Revenue Service in Los Angeles.
The National Archives and Records Administration posted 229 files containing the pages to its public website.
The release comes a month after unredacted files related to the assassination of President Kennedy were disclosed. Those documents gave curious readers more details about Cold War-era covert US operations in other nations but did not initially lend credence to long-circulating conspiracy theories about who killed JFK.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of Robert Kennedy, commended the release.
“Lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government,” the health secretary said in a statement.
Documents include interviews with assassin’s acquaintances
The files surrounding Robert Kennedy’s assassination also included notes from interviews with people who knew Sirhan from a wide variety of contexts, such as classmates, neighbors and coworkers. While some described him as “a friendly, kind and generous person” others depicted a brooding and “impressionable” young man who felt strongly about his political convictions and briefly believed in mysticism.
According to the files, Sirhan told his garbage collector that he planned to kill Kennedy shortly after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. The sanitation worker, a Black man, said he planned to vote for Kennedy because he would help Black people.
“Well, I don’t agree. I am planning on shooting the son of a bitch,” Sirhan replied, the man told investigators.
Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of “The Kennedy Half-Century,” said there have always been conspiracies surrounding Robert Kennedy’s assassination. He believes the rollout of documents Friday would be similar to the JFK documents released earlier this year.
He cautioned that a review needs to be done carefully and slowly, “just in case there is a hint in there or there is an anecdote” that could shed more light on the assassination.
“I hope there’s more information,” Sabato said. “I’m doubtful that there is, just as I said when the JFK documents were released.”
Some redactions remained in the documents posted online Friday, including names and dates of birth. Last month, the Trump administration came under criticism over unredacted personal information, including Social Security numbers, during the release of records surrounding President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
Trump, a Republican, has championed in the name of transparency the release of documents related to high-profile assassinations and investigations. But he has also been deeply suspicious for years of the government’s intelligence agencies. His administration’s release of once-hidden files opens the door for more public scrutiny of the operations and conclusions of institutions such as the CIA and the FBI.
Trump signed an executive order in January calling for the release of government documents related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and King, who were killed within two months of each other.
Lawyers for Kennedy’s killer have said for decades that he is unlikely to reoffend or pose a danger to society, and in 2021, a parole board deemed Sirhan suitable for release. But Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected the decision in 2022, keeping him in state prison. In 2023 , a different panel denied him release, saying he still lacks insight into what caused him to shoot Kennedy.
RFK still stands as a hero to American liberals
Kennedy remains an icon for liberals, who see him as a champion for human rights who also was committed to fighting poverty and racial and economic injustice. They often regard his assassination as the last in a series of major tragedies that put the US and its politics on a darker, more conservative path.
He was a sometimes divisive figure during his lifetime. Some critics thought he came late to opposing the Vietnam War, and he launched his campaign for president in 1968 only after the Democratic primary in New Hampshire exposed President Johnson’s political weakness.
Kennedy’s older brother appointed him US attorney general, and he remained a close aide to him until JFK’s assassination in Dallas. In 1964, he won a US Senate seat from New York and was seen as the heir to the family’s political legacy.
Judge says detained Tufts student must be transferred from Louisiana to Vermont
A Tufts University student from Turkiye being held in Louisiana must be returned to New England by May 1 to determine whether she was illegally detained by immigration officials for co-writing an op-ed piece in the student newspaper, a federal judge ruled Friday.
US District Judge William Sessions in Burlington, Vermont, said he would hear Rumeysa Ozturk’s request to be released from detention. Her lawyers had requested that she be released immediately, or at least brought back to Vermont.
“The Court concludes that this case will continue in this court with Ms. Ozturk physically present for the remainder of the proceedings,” the judge wrote. “Ms. Ozturk has presented viable and serious habeas claims which warrant urgent review on the merits. The Court plans to move expeditiously to a bail hearing and final disposition of the habeas petition, as Ms. Ozturk’s claims require no less.”
Immigration officials surrounded the 30-year-old doctoral student as she walked along a street in a Boston suburb March 25 and drove her to New Hampshire and Vermont before putting her on a plane to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana. An immigration judge denied her request for bond Wednesday, citing “danger and flight risk” as the rationale.
Ozturk is among several people with ties to American universities whose visas were revoked or have been stopped from entering the US after they were accused of attending demonstrations or publicly expressing support for Palestinians. A Louisiana immigration judge has ruled that the US can deport Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil based on the federal government’s argument that he poses a national security risk.
A lawyer for the Justice Department said her case should be dismissed, saying the immigration court has jurisdiction.
Ozturk’s lawyers first filed a petition on her behalf in Massachusetts. Initially, they didn’t know where she was. They said they were unable to speak to her until more than 24 hours after she was detained. Ozturk herself said she unsuccessfully made multiple requests to speak to a lawyer.
Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper, The Tufts Daily, last year criticizing the university’s response to student activists demanding that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.
Ozturk’s lawyers say her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said last month, without providing evidence, that investigations found that Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group.
