US army deserter heads home for first time in 40 years
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-14 13:49

Charles Jenkins, the US soldier who deserted to North Korea in 1965, left Japan for his first visit to the United States in 40 years to see his 91-year-old mother.

Jenkins, 65, left Narita airport with his Japanese wife, whom he met in Pyongyang, and their two North Korean-born daughters on a commercial flight.

Charles Robert Jenkins (front), former U.S. Army sergeant who deserted to North Korea 40 years ago and is now living in Japan with his Japanese wife Hitomi Soga (L) and daughters Mika (behind Jenkins) and Brinda (R), leaves the New Tokyo International Airport for Rich Square in North Carolina from Narita, east of Tokyo June 14, 2005. Jenkins, who will be returning home for the first time in around 40 years, said he would spend about a week in the U.S.[Reuters]

The former sergeant, clad in suit and tie, did not speak to reporters at the airport but issued a statement asking the media to respect their privacy during their weeklong visit.

"This has been a very emotional and special time for me," he said in the statement.

Jenkins, then a 24-year-old sergeant disgruntled with army life, walked across the snowy Cold War frontier dividing North and South Korea in 1965, spooked by the fear of being sent to Vietnam.

Charles Robert Jenkins is shown in a 1950s photo provided by his childhood friend Michael Cooke.[AFP/file]

He was allowed to leave North Korea last year to settle in Japan's small northern island of Sado, where his wife Hitomi Soga grew up.

Soga is among a number of Japanese kidnapped by North Korea during the Cold War to train spies in the Japanese language and culture. She and Jenkins married in 1980.

In October 2002, Soga and four other Japanese kidnap victims were allowed to return to Japan under a deal reached between Japan and North Korea.

Jenkins's elderly mother is living in a nursing home in North Carolina.

Close

Space shuttle Discovery launch delayed Blair plans measures to uproot extremism Pakistan train crash carnage kills 128

Today's Top News     Top World News
Taiwan's KMT Party to elect new leader Saturday         'No trouble brewing,' beer industry insists         Critics see security threat in Unocal bid         DPRK: Nuke-free peninsula our goal         Workplace death toll set to soar in China         No foreign controlling stakes in steel firms	Judge: Saddam trial could begin next month       DPRK: Nuke-free peninsula our goal       Pakistan train crash carnage kills 128       NASA delays shuttle launch till Saturday       Annan advocates UN Council expansion now       Israel seals off Gaza Strip settlements