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This article or section appears to contradict itself about Chung's age. Please see the talk page for more information. (January 2014) |
| Roy Chung | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1951 |
| Died | ? |
| Place of birth | South Korea |
| Place of death | North Korea (?) |
| Allegiance |
 South Korea (until 1973) United States (1973-1979)  North Korea (1979-????) |
| Service/branch |
 United States Army |
| Years of service | ???? — 1979 (Defected) |
| Rank |
 Private First Class |
Roy Chung (born Chung Ryeu Sup) is widely believed to be the fifth of six United States Army servicemen to have defected to North Korea after the Korean War.
Life and disappearance[]
Chung was not an American citizen; he and his family were South Korean immigrants who arrived in the United States in 1973. According to his father Soo-Oh Chung, he had joined the Army to get Army education benefits. He disappeared and was reported AWOL on June 5, 1979 while serving with his unit near Bayreuth, West Germany (about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the borders of Czechoslovakia and East Germany). After 30 days he became classified as a deserter. He was 22 and a Private First Class at the time.[1]
Two months after his disappearance in Europe, North Korea's official propaganda station Radio Pyongyang (now Voice of Korea) announced his defection, stating that he "could no longer endure the disgraceful life of national insult and maltreatment he had to lead in the U.S. imperialist aggressor Army."[1]
The other five men who disappeared into North Korea did so by directly crossing the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
In 2004, filmmaker Nicholas Bonner (co-creator of the documentary Crossing the Line) reported that he heard Chung had died of natural causes. But if he were still alive at time, he then have been aged 52 or 53.
Responses: defection or abduction?[]
Officials of the United States Department of State and the Pentagon at the time stated that they had no reason to doubt North Korea's claims of defection, and made no major inquiries into the matter because Chung had no access to classified information and was not a security threat. However, Chung's family and Korean-American groups strongly believed that he had been abducted, and was not a defector, as widely believed. They compared his disappearance to several documented abductions by North Korean agents, most notably the kidnap of actress Choi Eun-hee.[1]
See also[]
- List of American and British defectors in the Korean War: the 21 Americans and 1 Briton who refused repatriation during Operation Big Switch in 1953 (to remain in China)
- Larry Allen Abshier (1943–1983) of Urbana, Illinois, deserted in May 1962 at age 19
- James Joseph Dresnok (born 1941) of Richmond, Virginia, deserted on August 15, 1962 at age 21
- Jerry Wayne Parrish (1944–1998) of Morganfield, Kentucky, deserted in December 1963 at age 19
- Charles Robert Jenkins (born 1940) of Rich Square, North Carolina, deserted on January 5, 1965 at age 24
- Joseph T. White (1961–1985) of St Louis, Missouri, deserted in August 1982 at age 20
Notes[]
External links[]
- Department of Defense article mentioning Pfc. Chung
- North Korea: a guide to economic and political developments
The original article can be found at Roy Chung and the edit history here.