Cold War · Disappeared from a U.S. Army unit in Germany, surfaced in North Korea · Defector or kidnap victim, unresolved
Status: Open case. Pfc. Chung is not on DPAA’s list of missing servicemen; the Army treated his case as a defection. PIP’s twenty-year review found little evidence the U.S. government made a substantial effort to resolve the disappearance or recover him, and a possible match in later declassified material has never been confirmed as this case.
The man
North Korean propaganda said Chung was “spending happy days amid the warm care and hospitality of the people in the northern half of the (Korean) republic.” His parents in New Jersey objected to any Army discharge; their lawyer said sources believed he had been taken against his will.
What is known
U.S. Army Pfc. Ryeu Sup “Roy” Chung (Korean: 로이 정) was reported absent without leave on June 5, 1979 from his unit in Germany, Troop C, First Squadron, Second Armored Cavalry Regiment. Chung was South Korean-born; sources differ on whether he was a U.S. citizen or a Korean citizen living in the United States. He was said to be a devout Christian. His commander’s report “revealed no evidence or indication of foul play, drug use or defection.”
Pfc. Chung later surfaced in North Korea, reported by North Korean broadcast media. North Korean officials at Panmunjom initially refused to answer questions about him, then stated he had escaped to North Korea because he could not “stand the life in the aggressive imperialist U.S. Army.” PIP notes that Americans who did defect across the DMZ were generally celebrated in North Korean propaganda, which was not the pattern here. Chung’s family did not believe he had defected, and little has been heard about him since.
A previously classified 1993 State Department document, released to PIP in November 2012, appears to concern this case, though PIP notes the dates given are slightly off and the document refers to the subject as Chong In-Sik rather than Roy Chung. According to an informant cited in that document, a Korean-American member of the U.S. military defected in Germany in 1980, traveled through Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia) and Russia, and arrived in North Korea in October 1980. He was arrested and imprisoned in “a special prison reserved for sensitive prisoners,” at a place given phonetically as Song Heli, roughly 50 kilometers northeast of Pyongyang. The man died on January 1, 1986 after being beaten by guards. The same informant gave the U.S. Embassy a list of others held at the same prison, including “Japanese and a number of ethnic-Korean Japanese who had gone to North Korea.”
PIP also cites a separate U.S. Army intelligence report concerning a North Korean commando captured in South Korea in 1962, who reported that one of his team’s missions was to kidnap U.S. servicemen and take them to North Korea. This is offered by PIP as evidence that North Korean agents were, at the relevant period, kidnapping South Koreans and others in Europe and elsewhere, not as evidence specific to Chung’s case. The same document refers to a four-man Republic of Korea team kidnapped in July 1962.
PIP states it followed the Chung case for twenty years and found little evidence that the U.S. government made a substantial effort to get to the bottom of the disappearance or recover him — a gap PIP attributes to Chung having been written off as a defector and a Korean citizen, compounded by what it describes as a general lack of official focus on American servicemen reported in North Korea.
The reported route through Czechoslovakia fits a pattern PIP is researching: possible Czechoslovak involvement with American defectors, with a possible abduction victim such as Chung, and with American POWs. Sgt. 1st Class Glen Roy Rohrer, a U.S. Army polygraph examiner at Camp King in West Germany, a joint U.S. intelligence center that debriefed people coming out of the Soviet bloc, defected to Prague in 1965 and was reportedly registered by Czechoslovak state security as an agent. Cpl. John Roedel Dunn, one of the American prisoners who refused repatriation after the Korean War, went to China and in 1959 settled in Czechoslovakia; he died in 1996 in what is now Slovakia.
A forthcoming PIP report will examine accounts by Maj. Gen. Jan Sejna, a Czechoslovak general who defected to the United States in 1968, and Vaclav Eminger, a former Czech political prisoner, reporting that American POWs from the Korean and Vietnam wars were shipped to Prague and that Czechoslovak intelligence exploited American prisoners in both theaters.
What remains unresolved
Whether the 1993 State Department informant account — describing “Chong In-Sik,” with dates PIP says are “slightly off” — in fact concerns Roy Chung has not been confirmed. PIP itself frames this as an open question it was trying to answer, not a settled identification. Chung’s ultimate fate, if the case is not the same as the “Chong In-Sik” account, is not addressed in the material reviewed here. No confirmation of his death, survival, or circumstances of disappearance beyond the AWOL report and the North Korean broadcast claim is present in the sources.
Why the case matters
The case sits in a category PIP argues has received little official scrutiny: a serviceman written off administratively as a defector, whose family disputed that account, at a time when North Korean agents are documented elsewhere as having carried out kidnappings of South Koreans and others in Europe. If the 1993 informant account does concern Chung, it would mean he died in North Korean custody in 1986 after being beaten by guards — a very different outcome from the “defector” classification under which his case has been carried.
Evidence and sources
- U.S. Army commander’s AWOL report on Pfc. Chung, June 1979, quoted above.
- North Korean broadcast media report of Chung’s presence in North Korea and Panmunjom officials’ statements on his status.
- Previously classified 1993 State Department document, released to PIP in November 2012, describing an informant’s account of a “Chong In-Sik” and the Song Heli prison.
- U.S. Army intelligence report on the 1962 capture of a North Korean commando in South Korea, describing a kidnap mission targeting U.S. servicemen.
Request for information
Please contact us if you can help with any of the following.
- Accounts of Chung in North Korea after 1979, including from anyone held at, or who knew of, the special prison at Song Heli (phonetic) northeast of Pyongyang.
- Confirmation of whether the 1993 “Chong In-Sik” account describes Chung, and whether he died in custody.
- Accounts of his route from West Germany through Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union to North Korea.
North Korea said he defected. His family never believed it. A 1993 informant described a Korean-American soldier who crossed from Germany in 1980 and was beaten to death in a special prison in 1986. Did Chung defect? Was he kidnapped by North Korean agents? And did he die in that prison?
Write to contact@powinvestigativeproject.org. We treat every approach in confidence.
Questions readers ask
Did Roy Chung defect to North Korea?
North Korea said he did. Officials at Panmunjom, after first refusing to answer questions about him, said he had gone north because he could not “stand the life in the aggressive imperialist U.S. Army.” His own commander’s report found no evidence or indication of defection, his parents objected to an Army discharge, and their lawyer said sources believed he had been taken against his will. PIP also notes that Americans who did defect across the DMZ were generally celebrated in North Korean propaganda, which was not the pattern here. The question is open.
What happened to Roy Chung?
He was reported absent without leave on June 5, 1979, from Troop C, First Squadron, Second Armored Cavalry Regiment in Germany, and later surfaced in North Korea in North Korean broadcast reports. A previously classified 1993 State Department document, released to PIP in November 2012, appears to concern the case, though the dates it gives are slightly off and it names the subject as Chong In-Sik. In that account an informant described a Korean-American serviceman who reached North Korea in October 1980, was imprisoned at a place given phonetically as Song Heli about 50 kilometers northeast of Pyongyang, and died on January 1, 1986, after being beaten by guards. PIP has not confirmed that the document describes Chung.
Is Roy Chung still alive?
Unknown. Little has been heard about him since 1979. The 1993 State Department account, if it is the same man, would place his death on January 1, 1986, but PIP has never been able to confirm that the document concerns this case.
Is Roy Chung on the DPAA missing list?
No. Pfc. Chung is not on the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency list of missing servicemen, and the Army treated his case as a defection. PIP’s twenty-year review found little evidence that the U.S. government made a substantial effort to resolve the disappearance or recover him.