Deserter gives up after 40 yrs
2004-09-11 11:24
Camp Zama - Nearly 40 years after he being accused of deserting the United States army by crossing into North Korea, Charles Robert Jenkins was once again in the US military's charge on Saturday after turning himself in.
Jenkins, 64, surrendered at Camp Zama, the headquarters of the US army in Japan, and was expected to bargain for a dishonourable discharge.
THis is part of his plan toward possibly settling in Japan with his wife and their two daughters.
Wearing a dark grey suit, Jenkins approached the military police building at the camp, stood to attention and gave a long salute to a senior officer.
"Sir, I'm Sergeant Jenkins, and I'm reporting," Jenkins said, according to Major John Amberg.
Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Nigara replied: "You are now under the control of the US army."
Jenkins was to be issued an army uniform and ID card, probably given a regulation haircut and re-established on the military payroll, said spokesperson Major James Bell.
Defected to North Korea in 1965
Jenkins left a Tokyo hospital early on Saturday where he had been since arriving in Japan on July 18 from North Korea via Indonesia.
This follows a deal made at a May summit between Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.
Jenkins had been undergoing treatment in Tokyo for complications arising from prostate surgery in Pyongyang.
Washington says Jenkins defected to North Korea in 1965 while serving in South Korea near the border with the Stalinist North.
His family in the United States insists he was kidnapped while on patrol and subsequently brainwashed.
Jenkins, his Japanese wife, Hitomi Soga, and daughters, Mika and Brinda, were due to stay at the base near Tokyo, while a preliminary hearing was under way.
Jenkins said in a statement earlier this month that he would go to the camp to "begin the process that will bring closure to my pending legal situation".
Soga, 45, was abducted by North Korean agents in 1978 from the Japanese island of Sado and married Jenkins in 1980.
She was allowed to return home in 2002 with four other Japanese kidnap victims when Kim admitted for the first time that North Korean agents abducted Japanese nationals to use them to train spies.
Likely to be spared imprisonment
Jenkins has been slapped with four charges, including desertion - which carries a maximum life term - aiding the enemy, encouraging disloyalty and inciting others to desert.
He has appeared in North Korean propaganda films.
He is likely to be spared imprisonment, reports said, adding that a possible solution would be a dishonorable discharge.
Tokyo has repeatedly asked Washington to be lenient with Jenkins while the Japanese public in general sympathised with Soga's plight.
The United States has insisted on taking legal action against Jenkins.