Part 2 PFC Joseph White's walk in the dark: The defection of an American soldier to North Korea

PFC Joseph White in North Korea. Courtesy of Jacco Zwetsloot's Collection

• Published Dec 1, 2019 9:57 AM KST
• Updated Dec 2, 2019 2:09 PM KST

By Robert Neff

Joseph White was from St. Louis, Missouri, and lived in a middle-class neighborhood of two-story, well-kept brick bungalows with his parents and four siblings.

An examination of his early childhood portrays him as idealistic and extremely patriotic. At the age of 13 he wrote to his senator warning him of the communist threat that he felt America was facing. He ensured the family's American flag was flown on all national holidays and was “folded just right” at sunset. He was also a volunteer with the Reagan's presidential campaign.

But his personality was complicated and filled with contradictions and the inability to fit in or be satisfied with himself. He was described as a nice enough boy, who was never in trouble at school or in public. Academically he was an average student, a devout Roman Catholic, and while in high school he volunteered as a counselor for handicapped children and was active in the Boy Scouts.

He was fascinated with the military and after high school applied to West Point, but was turned down. So he enrolled in Missouri's Kemper Military School and College where he maintained a B+ average. However, due to his lack of athletic ability and his shyness, he kept pretty much to himself and was regarded as a loner. Unable to fit in, he dropped out of school ― convincing himself that it was full of “losers” ― and enrolled in the military.

Korea posting

PFC White arrived in Korea in March 1982 and was assigned to Camp Howze, just south of the DMZ. He looked down on many of his fellow soldiers, whom he felt had no knowledge of Korea, save for what they learned from “MASH” or learned in the small villages surrounding the military camps that catered to the needs of the soldiers.

Soldiers in forward units spent most of their time on base, but when they were granted passes to go to the nearby “ville,” many over-indulged in alcohol and spent their time and money on women working in the bars.

He, on the other hand, read as much as he could on Korea and began learning the language. He became sympathetic to the Korean people and perhaps a little arrogant in thinking that only he could see past the American stereotypes and realize that the Koreans were happy in their small, crowded hovels, leading their simple lives. And in a way he yearned for this life. His mother would later wonder how he could give up his life in the United States “for one bowl of rice a day for the rest of his life” in North Korea.

There were suggestions that PFC White may have defected because of troubles in his unit. He was described as an “average soldier” and had a clean military record, but allegedly he had problems with his First Sergeant. Even if there was a problem, it is doubtful that this would have provoked his defection.

There is another theory, perhaps more conceivable, that he fell in love with a North Korean female agent who convinced him to defect. One American soldier claimed White fell in love with a North Korean agent in a club in Bongilchon (the village near Camp Howze) and that she disappeared on the same day PFC White did. Allegedly, she either guided him to the North Korean positions or she met him in North Korea. Another account claims White's commander refused to allow him to marry his Korean girlfriend.

There is still another account that claims on the night he defected, he complained to his squad leader about being denied a pass to see his Korean girlfriend who was in the hospital at the time. The squad leader advised him to wait and suggested that maybe within a week White would be given a pass. When his squad leader left the post, White made his move to defect.

Giving credence to these theories is White's infatuation with Korean women, whom he described as the “perfect man's mate,” who “know how to treat their man.” He boasted to his mother he had several Korean girlfriends who were “more beautiful than any girlfriend” he had had in the States. These Korean girls were not only attractive, but they were hard working and lived simply.

Women were not the only things on White's mind. He became fixated on defections. In a tape to his parents, he mentioned defection six times, mostly about the large number of North Koreans who defected to the South.

“In South Korean newspapers you read all the time of North Koreans who defect south,” but then he noted ominously in a disembodied voice, “But it's not all one-way traffic.” In fact there were several defections to the North, including a front-line South Korean commander.

After the defection

One soldier recalls that in the days following White's defection, North Korean propaganda along the guard post increased. “They would call out our names over the speakers to come North and join him. I didn't even know the guy.” His squad found it a little amusing because of the North Koreans' poor pronunciation of their names.

There was also a North Korean soldier who would call out insults and threats to the Americans and then serenade them with Korean songs. The Americans were less than impressed with his singing voice and likened it to what “would make a frog wince.”

South Korean soldiers were also talking about White's defection. Hong Duck-hwa recalls that they were told White had gone across with a M60 (machine gun) and “so everybody thought White must have been a very muscular guy like [Sylvester Stallone] Rocky.”

White was far from muscular and was no Sylvester Stallone but he was a propaganda star. In January 1983 leaflets, written in English and entitled “Full of happiness and hope,” were found in the DMZ. They depicted PFC White's “contented life” in North Korea surrounded by adoring women and “seeing the sights and visiting the institutions of culture.” Also on the leaflet was a note to his “Dear old fellow friends” in which he wrote, “My seeking a political asylum is a very right conduct.” The writing seems odd as does the signature.

Back in the United States, White's parents were determined to return to a normal life with their other four children. They had already packed away the posters that once adorned his walls and the pictures of his former girlfriend. Outwardly he was dead to them, but in their hearts he was still there ― a lost son that they prayed would return, or at least contact them.

In February 1983, they were surprised to receive a letter bearing North Korean stamps ― it was from their son.

In his letter he informed them that he was well and had helped harvest crops the previous fall. He was presently working as an English teacher for two North Korean students. He expressed his love and concern for his family and as an afterthought expressed his wish for an almanac and dictionary.

Unsurprisingly, the letter made no comment or explanation of what happened at the DMZ the previous year. Unbeknown to them, it would be their only letter from him while he was alive.

The final letter

Months dragged by. In November 1983, President Ronald Reagan visited the DMZ ― not too far from Guard Post Ouellette ― but it appears he said little, if anything, about White. But, on the military bases, White's name was infamous and was often evoked by first sergeants and commanders to their troops.

As the months passed and then years, White's name faded from the American media, until November 5, 1985, when the White family received a letter bearing North Korean stamps. It was Joseph White's 24th birthday. White's father described the letter as “a cruel twist of fate,” because instead of happy tidings from their son, it brought only the news of his unexpected death.

The letter was dated Aug. 22 and written by “Joe's best friend and a student of English,” Li Gun-ho. Apparently on Aug. 17, White had suggested to three of his Korean friends (including Li) that they go on a picnic to the banks of the Chongchon River. There they talked and drank red wine.

At some point White decided to swim across the river. He was described as a “fearless adventurer” but had been warned it was dangerous to swim in such a “swelled and fast stream.”

Li went on to explain that “when he [White] reached the middle of the river he suddenly dipped his body in the water and tossed his head and then began wriggling. It seemed that he had been caught in a swirl of fast water.”

One of White's Korean companions jumped into the river to help rescue him, but he failed, and both men drowned. According to Li, they never recovered the bodies.

Li spoke of the “happy days when we [White and his Korean friends] had the running and the mountaineering in the morning, and strolls in the evening while learning English from him.” However, Li's rosy picture of events seems suspicious.

Some have suggested White became too troublesome and either accidently died as a result of punishment or was deliberately killed.

The timing of his death, almost exactly three years after his defection and the letter informing his parents of his death arriving on his birthday, may be nothing more than a coincidence but they do raise some questions. Even the name of his “best friend” ― Li Gun-ho, sounds very similar to the phrase that his mother had used to describe her son. She had insisted that he was “gung-ho.”

Despite the family's pleas, the body of America's last defector, PFC Joseph White, still has not been returned to his family for the Roman Catholic burial they desire. Apparently, when you cross that line, you are gone forever ― even in death.

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.