US Soldier detained in North Korea in apparent defection

That’s one guess I have. Might have been part of why he was being rotated home.

If you follow the Wiki link I put up to Dresnok, you’ll find references to 4 such examples, all of which happened during the Cold War within a couple years of each other. Dresnok was the only one who stuck out staying there for life intentionally, while the other 3 spent much of their time trying to leave.

Several of them (specifically Dresnok) became local celebrities due to them starring as American villains in various North Korean films and shows. One of them ended up married to a Japanese abductee in a story which gripped Japan for a short while due to him being gravely ill and permitted to move to Japan.

This is the first example of a defection into North Korea that I know of since the end of the Cold War. It’s especially unusual since post 90’s North Korea is very clearly a bad move for a defector for a whole host of reasons. You would have to be unhinged to intentionally do it now.

I remember watching this pretty decent documentary about the defectors I mentioned earlier. Features Dresnok prominently and was shot in North Korea some years before he died. Gives a decent impression of what a defector to North Korea faced back in the day, and possibly what this Bryan Tubililty is facing now.