SEOUL, South Korea — One of a handful of American soldiers who defected to North Korea during the Cold War died last year after living there for more than half a century, two of his sons said in a video on a pro-North Korea website.

The soldier, James Joseph Dresnok, died in November at 74, according to his sons, Ted Dresnok and James Dresnok Jr. The sons, who were born in the North and are now in their 30s, were interviewed there on Aug. 15 by Roh Kil-nam, a journalist based in the United States, according to Mr. Roh, who uploaded the video to his website on Friday.

Mr. Dresnok was an American soldier based in South Korea, facing marital troubles and a potential court-martial for forging a pass, when he defected to North Korea in 1962, crossing the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas. He is believed to have been the last American deserter still alive in the North.

“I was fed up with my childhood, my marriage, my military life, everything,” Mr. Dresnok told the makers of “Crossing the Line,” a 2006 documentary. “I was finished. There’s only one place to go. I crossed over, looking for my new life.”