U.S. soldier deserted to North Korea
Charles Jenkins, a U.S. Army deserter to North Korea who married a Japanese abductee and lived in Japan after their release, has died. He was 77.
Jenkins was found collapsed outside his home in Sado in northern
Japan on Monday and was taken to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead, a group representing fam- ilies of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea said Tuesday.
Public broadcaster NHK said he died of heart failure.
Jenkins, of Rich Square, North Carolina, disappeared in January 1965 while on patrol along the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea. He later called his desertion a mistake that led to decades of deprivation and hardship in the communist country.
In North Korea, Jenkins met his wife Hitomi Soga, who had been kidnapped from Japan in 1978, and the couple had two daughters, Mika and Blinda. His wife was allowed to visit Japan in 2002 and stayed. Jenkins and their daughters followed in 2004.
Once in Japan, Jenkins was subject to a U.S. court-martial in 2004 in which he said he deserted because of fear of being sent to fight in Vietnam. He pleaded guilty to desertion and aiding the enemy and was dishonourably discharged and sentenced to 25 days in a U.S. military jail in Japan.
Jenkins and his family lived in Soga’s hometown of Sado, where he was a popular worker at a local souvenir shop and could often be seen posing for photos with tourists. After settling in Japan, he visited North Carolina to see his mother and sister. But he said he had no plans to move back to the U.S.