Jerry Wayne Parrish (March 10, 1944August 25, 1998), also known by his Korean name Kim Yu-il, was a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

corporal Corporal is a military rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The rank is usually the lowest ranking non-commissioned officer. In some militaries, the rank of corporal nominally corr ...

who was one of seven American soldiers to defect to

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

, four of them during the 1960s, in the years after the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. Parrish was born in Morganfield,

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

and was shipped to

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

as a

in the U.S Army. Following American soldiers Larry Allen Abshier and Joe Dresnok defection in 1962, Parrish crossed the

Demilitarized Zone A demilitarized zone (DMZ or DZ) is an area in which treaties or agreements between states, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel. A DZ often lies along an established frontier or boundary ...

(DMZ) on December 6, 1963. Sergeant

Charles Robert Jenkins Charles Robert Jenkins () was a United States Army desertion, deserter, North Korean prisoner, and voice for North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens, Japanese abductees in North Korea. Driven by fear of combat and possible service in th ...

, who in 1965 became the fourth to cross the border, wrote in his autobiography that Parrish's reasons for defecting were "personal, and

arrish ''Earsh'' (noun) () was used in South and West England to describe a stubble field in which a grain crop — wheat, barley or rye — had been harvested, leaving short stubble or short stalks. The field is prepared for seeding by ploughing the stu ...

didn't elaborate about them much except to say that if he ever went home, his father-in-law would kill him." Dresnok stated in his documentary that Parrish had received death threats from his stepfather who had accused him of having sexual relations with his stepsister. Along with the three other defectors, Parrish was eventually granted citizenship. He married a Lebanese woman, Siham Shraiteh, and together they had three sons (two of them named Michael and Ricky), all of whom remain in North Korea. Jenkins, in his autobiography, claims that Siham and three other young Lebanese women were lured to North Korea under false pretenses, then married to the Americans. However, one of the women had well-connected parents and got all four returned. Siham was already pregnant, so her family sent her back to North Korea. Siham appears in the film '' Crossing the Line'', and vehemently denies the allegations that she was kidnapped or forced to go to North Korea, affirming that she is there by choice. Also according to the film, Parrish died after 20 years of kidney trouble. Siham and their children remain in North Korea. Parrish, Jenkins, Abshier, and Dresnok were made to play roles in North Korean film productions for their propaganda value, credited using their given Korean names (in Parrish's case this was "Kim Yu-il"). One of them was the 20-film series ''

Unsung Heroes ''Unsung Heroes'', also known as ''Unknown Heroes'' or more literally as ''Nameless Heroes'', is a Cinema of North Korea, North Korean war drama mini-series about a spy in Seoul during the Korean War. Over twenty hours long, it was filmed and rel ...

'' which began production in 1978 and which portrayed a fictionalized version of the

and its antecedents. Since Parrish's character ("Lt. Louis London", a British officer) defected from the West and became a North Korean agent, he was often praised as a genuine Communist hero by average North Koreans.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parrish, Jerry 1944 births 1998 deaths American defectors American expatriates in North Korea People from Morganfield, Kentucky American people imprisoned in North Korea Military personnel from Kentucky United States Army soldiers Korean people of American descent North Korean male film actors

See also

References