Accused deserter to surrender after 40 years

Accused US army deserter Charles Jenkins said today he will surrender to face charges that have dogged him since he vanished from his unit in South Korea nearly 40 years ago and resurfaced as a potent propaganda tool in the communist North.

Jenkins, in a Japanese hospital, is accused of abandoning his Army unit in January 1965 and defecting to North Korea.

After his disappearance, he made pro-communist broadcasts for the North and played malevolent Americans in North Korean propaganda films.

His offer to surrender, in a three-paragraph statement released by the Japanese government, was a major step toward solving a diplomatic quandary between US military officials eager to prosecute him and Tokyo, which hopes to win him leniency so he can live in Japan with his Japanese wife.

The 64-year-old gave no timetable for his surrender, saying only that he expected he would be healthy enough to leave the Japanese hospital where he has been since July “very shortly”.

“I will soon voluntarily face the charges that have been filed against me by the US army,” Jenkins said in the statement, which he signed “Charles Robert Jenkins, Sergeant, United States Army”.

Desertion carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Jenkins could also face charges of aiding the enemy and encouraging other soldiers to desert.

Jenkins is married to Hitomi Soga, a Japanese citizen who was kidnapped by North Korean agents in 1978 and taken to the communist state to train spies in Japanese language and culture. She was allowed to return to Japan in 2002, but Jenkins and their two daughters stayed behind.

Following a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in May, Jenkins and his two daughters went to Indonesia, for a reunion with Soga, and went to Japan a week later.

Jenkins denied that he ever intended to use his connection with Japan to avoid facing US military justice.

“When I stepped onto the plane that carried my family and me from Indonesia to Japan, it was my full intention to voluntarily report to the US army base in Japan to face the allegations that have been charged against me,” he wrote.

The US military welcomed the announcement.

“Sergeant Jenkins faces serious charges and we have long contended that he needs to avail himself of the military justice system,” said Colonel Victor Warzinski, spokesman for US Forces Japan. “So we will be prepared to receive him.”

Japan has urged the United States to treat Jenkins with leniency. Soga’s plight has received widespread public sympathy, and the government is eager to have them live together in Japan.

In an interview today by the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review, Jenkins said he despised the North Korean regime. The article cited legal documents filed on Jenkins’ behalf as saying he had tried to escape once in 1966.

The report said Jenkins would base his defence in part on claims he co-operated with the communist regime to avoid the death penalty and to keep his family together. Jenkins also has offered to provide information on the use of foreign nationals in the North Korean spy programme.

He also said that Jenkins claimed to have been beaten 30 times by fellow accused American deserter Private James Joseph Dresnok, who is still living in North Korea.