Part 1 PFC Joseph White's walk in the dark: The defection of an American soldier to North Korea

By Robert Neff

A propaganda leaflet of PFC White's defection to North Korea. Robert Neff Collection.

• Published Nov 30, 2019 11:34 AM KST
• Updated Dec 1, 2019 9:58 AM KST

On August 28, 1982, at about 2 a.m., the sound of a single gunshot shattered the silence of the Panmunjeom region of Korea's Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

Gunfire along the DMZ was not uncommon, and while it was alarming, none could have imagined that it signified the unthinkable ― the defection of an American soldier to North Korea.

The incident occurred at Guard Post Oullette, one of the most forward American positions at that time in South Korea. PFC Joseph T. White, a member of the 1st Battalion of the 31st Infantry Regiment, was alone at his post when he shot off the lock of one of the gates leading into the 2.5-mile-wide DMZ, and made his way into one of most heavily fortified and mined zones in the world.

White was equipped with an M-16 with an attached grenade launcher, ammo, night-vision goggles, operating instructions for radio equipment and some unclassified information on radar and sensor systems, but all of these were left behind except his weapon and ammo.

White's sojourn through the DMZ was necessarily slow and deliberate as he skirted around mine fields and other obstacles. As he neared the North Korean positions he could be heard yelling in clumsy Korean “I am coming” and calling for help. His plea for assistance was not to his fellow Americans but to the North Koreans.

The few American soldiers who witnessed his defection could not believe what they were seeing, for, as White knew, “When you cross that line, you're gone forever.” At least one soldier apparently asked permission to shoot White before the North Koreans reached him, but that request was denied.

They watched in the early morning light as a squad of North Korean soldiers seemingly man-handled him (some soldiers described it as a beating) and led him into a bunker. The United Nations Command (UNC) later described the incident as 10 North Koreans “apprehending an [unnamed] individual.”

Disbelief

Despite the fact that later that day, the North Korean government exuberantly announced that PFC White was in their “warm protection” after having crossed the border on his own volition seeking political asylum, White's family and the American government had their doubts.

White's parents were devastated by the news and vehemently denied his defection. White's father Norval described the news of his son's disappearance as a “terrible tragedy” he could not understand.

“It's like he was killed in action,” the grief-stricken father told a reporter during a brief telephone interview.

In an interview on August 31, his sobbing mother Kathleen insisted she felt no shame because her son was a “prisoner” and would never have defected because “Joey is nothing but gung-ho Army, a gung-ho patriot, and gung-ho Reagan.”

In desperation she wrote letters to President Ronald Reagan and former President Richard M. Nixon begging them for assistance in getting her son returned from the North Koreans.

In her letter to Reagan, she expounded on her son's loyalty to the president as well as to the United States. “This is a boy the country needs,” she proclaimed and warned that if the North Koreans could “capture one, they can do it to a hundred, and soon they'll be on the West Coast.” She suggested to the president that it might be prudent for the U.S. forces in Korea to “collect some North Koreans and trade them” for her son.

Despite the witness accounts of fellow American soldiers, there was some doubt in the American government. A former American soldier remembered that on the morning White defected, his commander assembled the unit together and told them that they were “going to get their boy” back.

On August 30, United Nations Command's senior representative, Rear Admiral James G. Storm, requested a face-to-face meeting with White to verify the circumstances of his defection, but his request was denied by the North Korean representative, Han Ju-kyung, who insisted that it was a well-known fact that White had defected.

The UNC continued to demand an audience with the American soldier to verify his status, and the North Koreans continued to refuse, thus provoking American officials to proclaim the North as “unreasonable and inhumane.”

The evidence

Despite White's parents' insistence their son had not defected, evidence ― including the witness accounts ― began to indicate otherwise.

An inspection of his personal effects in the barracks “uncovered a large number of North Korean propaganda leaflets and newspaper articles about life in North Korea.” This in itself was nothing more than circumstantial evidence.

White, like many young soldiers, collected North Korean propaganda leaflets (despite the fact that it was illegal), which could be found in the mountains throughout Korea, and even in the streets of Seoul. White had even written to his parents with “boyish exuberance” of his intention to collect these “odd testimonials to the joys of life under the Communist regime.”

Perhaps the most damning evidence was the North Korean video that was released shortly after his defection. Taped at the Pyongyang Cultural People's Palace, White criticized the American government and its policies while praising North Korea and Kim Il-sung.

He claimed he had not defected on a whim, but had done so with great thought and emotion to “show the world the corruptness, criminality, immorality, weakness, and hedonism of the U.S.,” and to demonstrate how “unjustifiable [it was] for the U.S. to send troops to South Korea.”

As a soldier in the 1980s, I watched this video, or a similar one, and remember thinking how stiffly and uncomfortably White spoke. The vocabulary seemed almost alien to his tongue, as if it were orchestrated. The UNC evidently felt the same way.

“The language is stilted and totally unlike a Westerner's speaking style, particularly that of a U.S. Army soldier. It should be noted also that the press conference touched on every propaganda theme currently being voiced by North Korea.”

White's father echoed the sentiment. “He never complained about the American policy in Korea. His letters were very upbeat and factual and described what was going on in Korea.”

But they weren't all upbeat:

In early July, his unit rotated from Camp Howze to Warrior Base. White described Warrior Base as “a god-forsaken wretched place” where they lived in tents, shaved in their helmets, were tormented by mosquitoes, and the sweltering heat was made even more unbearable by the constant rain.

“There is absolutely no entertainment here. Sometimes we have movies shown outside on a sheet with gravel for chairs. Periodically, a bookmobile comes over the lunch hour. Practically our sole entertainment is a color TV that a soldier brought with him, which we watch in tent. There is also a Korean snack bar which sells food and is some place to go and sit. There is also chapel on Saturday evenings.”

Each soldier was allowed to have two beers a night and no more ― “being caught drunk is a severely punishable offense.”

There were very few passes given out to the soldiers, causing White to write: “No passes means no women, no drink and monotony.”

The monotony was broken up when they went out on patrol ― especially night patrol:

“It is eerie to lie in an ambush position with 196 rounds of live ammo in your magazine pouches at 3 a.m. in the morning and listen to the voice of a communist woman which is quivering with hate. Hate for the U.S. and Republic of Korea. Interspersed (with the speeches) by men and women (is the) broadcasting of martial music.”

Firefights were not uncommon and the danger was real. He described a patrol being followed by three armed personnel who, when confronted, “ran helter-skelter over the middle demarcation line into North Korea.”

A couple of weeks later, in a letter to a friend, White claimed he was almost killed twice ― once when his patrol inadvertently strayed into one of its own ambush sites and the second when it became “misoriented” in the dark.

Acceptance of the unthinkable

By mid-September it became clear to just about everyone ― including his parents ― that White had defected. His mother confessed to being “totally confused” and unable to sleep for three nights, asking herself over and over how this could have happened.

“The kid I knew was a straight arrow, proud of being American and proud of being in the army.” He was even planning for his future by saving up money in anticipation of his discharge from the military in the following March.

Their neighbors were also unwilling to believe White had defected entirely on his own free will.

“Something must have happened to him. Something must have clicked. He wouldn't do anything like that unless they brainwashed him,” insisted a close friend of the family.

But on Sept. 19, an American military spokesman announced the investigation into the incident had ended ― PFC White had willingly defected to North Korea.

Shortly after the military's finding, White's parents received “a warm, personal, supportive letter” from President Reagan ― the facts were irrefutable.

“We asked for the truth and we got facts. We accept these facts. I know it's hard but the facts are there. I don't see how I can refute it,” Mr. White told the press. “We, his parents, relatives and friends do not know what ignited this totally uncharacteristic action. We are all deeply hurt.”

Mrs. White, devastated at the thought of never seeing her son again, said:

“I'll go to the grave with a thousand questions without any peace until I talk to my son, Joe. We pray that someday Joe will be with us. If my son had any faults, it was that Joe has such strong feelings for the oppressed people of the world.”

Later, in another interview, she insisted: “It just doesn't make any sense. Why would Joey want to leave his ice cream, his chocolate syrup [and] his money?”

Note: An earlier version of this article was published with the Asia Times on February 23, 2007. I would also like to thank Jacco Zwetsloot for his assistance and permitting me to use some of his images.