Dresnok was among a handful of American servicemen to desert after the Korean war and was loyal to Kim Jong-un 
 
 The only US soldier known to still be living in North Korea after defecting more than five decades ago died last year, pledging his loyalty to the “great leader Kim Jong-un”, his sons have said. 
 
 
 
 James Joseph Dresnok was among a handful of American servicemen to desert following the 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 defector in the country, the others all having died or been allowed to leave. 
 
 North Korea's bold wave of propaganda art - in pictures Read more 
 
 In a video interview posted on the state-run Uriminzokkiri website, Ted and James Dresnok, his two sons, confirmed their father had 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. 
 
 In the video, Dresnok and his brother wore a Korean People’s army uniform, 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 heavy 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 North Koreans, who normally only express officially approved sentiments when speaking for a foreign audience. 
 
 It was the brothers’ second appearance on the programme, after they praised the country in an interview in May 2016. 
 
 Play Video 1:01 Sons of US defector to North Korea James Dresnok speak out after father's death – video 
 
 Addressing the recent tensions between Pyongyang and Washington, Ted Dresnok warned that the “US imperialists” were raising “war hysteria madness” with little knowledge 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 for ever”. 
 
 Tensions have been mounting in the region since Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) last month that appeared to bring much of the US within range. 
 
 That sparked a volley of threats between Pyongyang and Washington, with the US president, Donald Trump, warning of bringing “fire and fury” on the North while Pyongyang threatened to fire a salvo of missiles towards the US territory of Guam. 
 
 “We have our dear supreme commander Kim Jong-un. If he is by our side, our victory is certain,” said James Dresnok, who also goes by his Korean name Hong Chol, in the video posted on Friday. 
 
 The late James Dresnok, known as Joe, crossed a minefield at 21 to reach North Korea, after his wife divorced him and he was reportedly about to be court martialled. 
 
 He was the subject of a British documentary, Crossing the Line, in 2006 and expressed satisfaction with his life in Pyongyang, whose citizens enjoy better standards of living than those elsewhere in the isolated country. 
 
 He also told CBS that he would not leave even if “you put a billion damn dollars of gold on the table”. ||||| Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Jenkins walked across the DMZ and surrendered to North Korean soldiers there when he was 24 
 
 A former US sergeant who defected to North Korea and became Pyongyang's prisoner for nearly 40 years has died. 
 
 Charles Jenkins, 77, lived in Japan where he had settled with his family after his 2004 release. 
 
 He was among four US soldiers who defected in the 1960s and later became North Korean film stars, but was the only one who was released. 
 
 The others reportedly died in North Korea, including James Dresnok who was said to have died of a stroke in 2016. 
 
 Charles Jenkins died on Sado island on Monday, where he was living with his wife Hitomi Soga, also a former prisoner of North Korea. 
 
 He collapsed outside his home, Japanese media reports said, and later died of heart problems in hospital. His wife said in a statement that she was "very surprised" by his death and "cannot think of anything", according to AFP news agency. 
 
 A plan that went wrong 
 
 Mr Jenkins had led an extraordinary but also difficult life in North Korea, which he would later chronicle in a memoir and several interviews. 
 
 In 1965, while stationed with the US Army in South Korea by the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), Mr Jenkins decided to abandon his unit and defect to the North, fearing he would be killed in patrols or sent to fight in the Vietnam War. 
 
 He said he thought that once in North Korea, he could seek asylum with the Russian embassy, and eventually return to the US in a prisoner swap. 
 
 One January night, Mr Jenkins said he downed several beers, walked across the DMZ, and surrendered to North Korean soldiers there. He was only 24 years old. 
 
 But Russia did not grant him or the other Americans asylum. Instead, they were held as prisoners by the North Koreans. 
 
 "Thinking back now, I was a fool. If there's a God in the heaven, he carried me through it," said Mr Jenkins in a 2005 interview with US broadcaster CBS. 
 
 The men were forced to study the teachings of then-leader Kim Il-sung; did translation work; and taught English. But they also became minor celebrities when they acted in North Korean propaganda films, starring as Western villains. 
 
 Mr Jenkins said his captors often beat him, and conducted medical procedures on him that were sometimes unnecessary or brutal, including cutting off a US Army tattoo without anaesthesia, an experience which Mr Jenkins had described as "hell". 
 
 'Oyasumi' and 'Goodnight' 
 
 But one bright spot in his life was Ms Soga, who was abducted from Japan to teach North Korean spies her language. 
 
 Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Ms Soga, seen here in a 2004 file picture, was taken from Sado island 
 
 In 1980, North Korean officials moved her in with Mr Jenkins. Within two weeks they were forced to marry, according to Mr Jenkins, but they eventually fell in love, bonded by their mutual hatred of their captors. 
 
 "Well, I'll put it like this. I looked at her one time. I wasn't letting her go," he told CBS. 
 
 In his memoir, Mr Jenkins said that every night before they went to bed, he would say "oyasumi" (Japanese for goodnight) to his wife and she would respond in English. 
 
 "We did this so we would never forget who we really were and where we came from," he wrote. 
 
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 The couple had two daughters, Mika and Brinda. Mr Jenkins said that as foreign prisoners, they were treated better than ordinary North Koreans and given rations, even during the famine that swept North Korea in the 1990s. 
 
 In 2002, Ms Soga was freed after negotiations by the Japanese government. Pyongyang then allowed Mr Jenkins to leave two years later, along with their daughters. 
 
 The family reunited under intense scrutiny from the press in Japan, where there was widespread sympathy. 
 
 Image copyright AFP/JIJI PRESS Image caption Mr Jenkins and his family left North Korea in the early 2000s 
 
 In Japan, he surrendered to the US Army, almost four decades after he had defected, and was court-martialled. 
 
 He was eventually given a 30-day prison sentence, and a dishonourable discharge. 
 
 'North Korea wants me dead' 
 
 The family settled in Sado island, Ms Soga's hometown, and Mr Jenkins eventually found work as a greeter in a tourist park. 
 
 But he had to cope with the culture shock of adapting to the modern world, after spending so many years in an isolated country. 
 
 He claimed he had never touched a computer, let alone used the internet, and was surprised to see many women serving in the army as well as black people working as policemen, according to CBS. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr Jenkins was given computer training by the US Army while waiting for his court martial in 2004 
 
 He also suffered from lingering complications from medical procedures he received in North Korea and had to be hospitalised after his release, he told the Los Angeles Times in one of his last media interviews published in August. 
 
 Even while living in freedom, Mr Jenkins still remained afraid of his former captors, and was constantly worried that he or his family would eventually be assassinated. 
 
 "North Korea wants me dead," he told the paper. ||||| CLOSE The US-led UN command released dramatic video showing a North Korean soldier dash across border into South Korea as North Korean troops fire at him. The defector was wounded. The UN says North Korea violated the Korean War armistice by firing. (Nov. 22) AP 
 
 This screengrab made from video footage released by the United Nations Command on Nov. 22 shows North Korea soldiers reacting to the news of a defection. (Photo: AFP) 
 
 A North Korean soldier who was shot and wounded as he sought to scramble across a heavily guarded border to freedom in South Korea is a "nice guy" who appreciates American movies, TV shows and western-style pop music, according to the doctor treating him. 
 
 Surgeon John Cook-Jong Lee told the Reuters news agency this week that the North Korean defector, a young soldier who is recovering in a Seoul hospital and has only been identified by the name "Oh," admitted to liking the comedy film Bruce Almighty starring Jim Carrey and Morgan Freeman and the gritty crime television series CSI. 
 
 The 24-year-old also expressed admiration for K-pop, a South Korean musical genre that mixes elements of electronica, rock, hip hop, R&B and jazz. 
 
 More: Video shows North Korean soldier's daring, bullet-ridden defection to South 
 
 It wasn't clear if the soldier was first exposed to western movies, TV shows and music in the hospital ward where he arrived after being shot four times on Nov. 13, or if he gained access to them while inside North Korea. Pyongyang is a highly secretive regime that restricts information its citizens can access to crack down on dissent. 
 
 Dramatic footage of the soldier's daring defection was released Wednesday by the American-led United Nations Command that helps police the 1950-1953 Korean War armistice. It showed showed him racing across the border under fire from former comrades, and then being hauled to safety by South Korean troops. 
 
 "He told me that he is so thankful for South Koreans for saving his life and giving him so much blood," Lee said of the soldier in the interview. He said "Oh" was recovering well physically but having recurring nightmares about being sent back to the North. 
 
 "He's a pretty nice guy," he said, adding that he had hair "like a jarhead, like a U.S. Marine, so I actually joked ‘why don’t you join the South Korean marines?’ He smiled and said that he would never ever go back to the military system again." 
 
 North Korea is believed to have replaced all the border security guards who failed to prevent the soldier's defection, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Friday. 
 
 Marc Knapper, the acting U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, tweeted a picture Thursday of what he said showed North Koreans planting two trees and digging a trench at the spot where "Oh" crossed into the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas. North Korean border guards who were chasing him had strayed into the area before turning back, technically violating the terms of the Korean War truce. 
 
 More: Kim Jong Un's family: The bizarre, cruel world of North Korea's dynasty 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2iL6enG ||||| Story highlights The man is identified as Arturo Pierre Martinez, 29, of El Paso, Texas 
 
 His mother says her son is bipolar and has been in a psychiatric hospital 
 
 In a statement, he says he crossed illegally into North Korea 
 
 He denounces the American political and economic system in the statement 
 
 An American who said he crossed illegally into North Korea denounced the United States political and economic system Sunday morning at a press conference in that country. 
 
 The man said he was Arturo Pierre Martinez, 29, a U.S. citizen raised in El Paso, Texas. 
 
 Martinez's mother, Patricia Eugenia Martinez of El Paso, said their son was bipolar and earlier tried to enter North Korea by swimming across a river, only to be stopped and shipped back to the United States, where he was placed in a California psychiatric hospital. 
 
 "Then he got out," she said. "He is very smart and he got the court to let him out and instead of coming home to us he bought a ticket and left for China. He took out a payday loan online and left for China." 
 
 Arturo Pierre Martinez, 29, delivers his statement at a press conference he said he requested. 
 
 She said the U.S. Embassy in Beijing is looking for him. 
 
 "My son is very intelligent," she said. "He said he wanted to protect Latinos and he worried about the world and about people. At 15 he obtained his computer certificate. He loves to read and write and work on the computer. He loved to help poor people. He is our only child." 
 
 Later she released a statement that said: "I'm glad and relieved that my son is safe. I am appreciative to the North Korean authorities for pardoning my son and releasing him. I look forward to spending Christmas with him after they release him." 
 
 When asked how she knew her son was being released, she said it was from reading the press conference statement. 
 
 But the legal status of Martinez in North Korea is unclear and it's unknown if he's free to leave the country. 
 
 In his 4,000-word statement, Martinez admitted committing a crime by illegally entering the country but said he was "extremely grateful for having been pardoned from the punishments given to violators of these laws, and for the most generous reception I have received." 
 
 He delivered his statement at a press conference he said he requested. Images released by North Korea showed him wearing a suit and sitting in a room facing a large group of people. 
 
 North Korea said in a separate statement that Martinez entered the country in November, two days after American diplomat James Clapper arrived. Clapper negotiated the release of Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller, the last two American citizens known to be held by North Korea. They arrived back in the United States on November 8. 
 
 Martinez said he first tried to cross over from South Korea's Han River and tried again from China's Yalu River in Dandong. 
 
 He went on to criticize American politicians and police as well as the electoral and prison systems. 
 
 "The illegal war carried out against the nation of Iraq serves as a perfect example of how the U.S. government acts much like a Mafia enterprise, but criminally plundering entire nations of their resources, strategic reserves and economies instead of smaller scale business and individuals, and does so without a code of ethics," he said. 
 
 He said the electoral system in the United States "is unfairly built for the benefit of the wealthy through the necessity of costly fundraising for political candidates seeking office. The democracy of this nation is an illusion and its representatives act as nothing more than power brokers for those who can offer them." 
 
 Of the wealthy people in the United States, he said, "These billionaires in power are nothing short of sociopathic megalomaniacs on the path to absolute world domination." 
 
 He also talked about unidentified flying objects, CIA involvement in the cocaine trade, "ultrasonic" devices that cause people to hear voices and experience bodily discomfort and how the Western news media unfairly portrayed North Korea.
– 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. Dresnok, who crossed a minefield into the North, had faced a court-martial for leaving his base without permission for a night on the town. "I was fed up with my childhood, my marriage, my military life, everything," he said. Sons Ted and James Dresnok, aka Hong Soon-chol and Hong Chol, spoke of their father in the new state video. "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. Though half-American himself, Ted Dresnok showed where his loyalties lie, warning that if war breaks out, "we will not miss the opportunity and wipe the land of the US from the earth for ever." His brother had a similar sentiment, saying: "We have our dear supreme commander Kim Jong Un. If he is by our side, our victory is certain." (You can see the two of them in this video from about a year ago.)