US ‘deserter’ risks arrest after arriving in Japan

AN alleged US Army deserter yesterday arrived in Japan, where he risks arrest on charges he defected to North Korea in the 1960s.

Charles Jenkins, who appeared frail as he disembarked, was immediately taken to a Tokyo hospital for treatment for abdominal problems.

His family had arrived from Jakarta, Indonesia, where they were reunited last week for the first time in about two years.

The Japanese government has pushed for US clemency for Mr Jenkins, who met his Japanese wife, Hitomi Soga, in North Korea after she was kidnapped from Japan in 1978 by secret agents.

Ms Soga was allowed to return to Japan in 2002, but Mr Jenkins and their two daughters stayed behind in the reclusive nation for fear of US prosecution.

Mr Jenkins disappeared from his Army post along the Demilitarised Zone dividing North and South Korea in 1965 when he was 24. He later appeared in North Korean anti-US propaganda films and taught English in the North.

Ms Soga met him after she was kidnapped and taken to North Korea to teach Japanese language and culture to communist spies.

Mr Jenkins’ family denies he is a deserter, maintaining he was kidnapped by North Korea. He will fall under US military jurisdiction once he arrives in Tokyo because of treaties signed by the US and Japan.