[KS] US North Korea GI Defector

[caprio]

Charles Jenkins reportedly defected to North Korea in 1964 (or 1965) 
upon learning
that he was to be shipped off to Vietnam.  He is originally from 
North Carolina.
(His family claims that he was kidnapped and then brainwashed, as he 
would never
betray his country.)  While in North Korea he played the role of the 
evil American
in a number of North Korean films.  He also taught English.  It was 
as a teacher that
he met Hitomi Soga, a Japanese from Sato island who was kidnapped by 
North Korean
agents along with her mother at the age of 19 in the 1970s.  Soga was 
returned to Japan along
with the other abductees following Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro's
trip to Pyongyang in October 2002.  Jenkins and their two daughters could have
traveled to Japan with the other five children last month but fear of 
court martial
by the United States military prevented him from doing so.  His two 
daughters decided to
remain with him.  A meeting was arranged in Jakarta (after involved 
parties nixed
China--it does, after all, have a direct train route to Pyongyang was 
the reason given) as Indonesia
does not have an extradition agreement with the United States.

More information is no doubt available on the web somewhere.

Mark Caprio (caprio at rikkyo.ne.jp)
Rikkyo University

>Dear Korea Studies List,
>A few days ago Reuters  reported a man being reunited with his wife 
>in Indonesia.  He was a GI who is thought to have defected to North 
>Korea during the Korean War.  Has anyone heard of this man?  Is 
>anything else known about him and his family?
>see website: 
><http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5614720&section=news>http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5614720&section=news
>Thank you.
>Tracy Stober
>University of Washington
>
>
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