Posted on 07/12/2004 12:21:10 PM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
hilarious. the journalist goes, "excuse me, you look North Korean"
I hope the CIA, etc.. get these guy's faces down. Because of the fear of defection, only very trusted top agents are allowed to go out of the country. I bet it's not the first time these agents have been out plotting who knows what...
Seems to me they all ought to board an ANA plane for Tokyo STAT and sort it all out under the physical protection of the Japanese government, perhaps in a SDF base VOQ.
And make no mistakes, these taekwando practitioners can get pretty violent when pushed too far. With all that hot kimchee, not to mention a hot Korean firecracker sentiment, and what with The Big Boss back home watching, telling them that if they fail, there is a wonderful future awaiting them and their families along the Chinese border in a freezing concentration camp, shoveling dung, they can get quite nasty.
It would be nice that a strong typhoon (a lot this time of year) in Okinawa would force ANA to make a landing at Kadena AB, whereupon US military police could come aboard and, uh, collect the person of interest for debriefing and processing within the US system.
Ah, but they'd probably go to Naha International, anyways.
This story is fascinating to me. A week ago today I was in a ryokan in Hiroshima, watching this story on the news, and understanding not a word. They kept flashing the same pictures, over and over, no matter what station I selected. I was relieved to get back to the states to find out what is actually going on.
Interesting to see how this develops.
If he still badmouths the U.S., I say we should have the US embassy there in Indonesia release a statement that details some juicy info we learned from him through a contact-- info that is highly critical of the NK government. Then his fate will be sealed, the NK government will be criticized over his "disappearance" and we'll never have to worry about a future Democrat president giving him amnesty.
LoL. These reporters were relentless. Worse than our 'investigative reporters'. And it sounded like they enjoyed it. lol.
As for Jenkins.....he may have some valuable info. May not. He's a deserter and deserves punishment.
Thanks for the post, but somewhere in my gut I view GOTTA SEE THIS as the exclusive domain of the mighty Diogenesis.
Sorry, I've been pirating that for well over a year. Maybe I should stop.
This could be an interesting international tug of war, with a man facing two equally tough fates and decisions.
We sure live in interesting times. Weird stuff going on all over the map and the only thing these events have in common is F'en Islam.
The reunion between the U.S. soldier who allegedly deserted the army in the 1960s and a Japanese women who was abducted to North Korea has created a media frenzy not only in Japan but elsewhere around the world. Charles Jenkins and Hitomi Soga are reunited at last but how long can their reunion last? As images of their tearful embraces spawn hopes for a rapid progress in normalizing relations between North Korea and Japan, there are now reports of conciliatory gestures coming from Pyongyang. Citing reliable sources, the Japanese media reported Tokyo has been informed by the North that Charles Jenkins and his two daughters do not need to return to Pyongyang after their reunion in Jakarta. According to the media reports, the North's move is apparently in response to Japan's request and Soga's wish that the respective authorities let the family live together in Japan. It's also a decision though unconfirmed that is seen as Pyongyang's efforts to pave the way for the resumption of official normalization talks with Tokyo. For now, it is not yet known if North Korea's intention has been relayed to Jenkins. According to the Japan Times, Charles Jenkins will not necessarily be imprisoned if he comes to Japan even though he will probably face a U.S. court-martial for desertion. After allegedly defecting to North Korea while serving in South Korea nearly 40 years ago, Charles Jenkins embarked on his first overseas trip on Friday with his two daughters Mika and Belinda to be reunited with his Japanese wife in Jakarta. Hitomi Soga was among those repatriated to their homeland in 2002 after the communist state admitted to a series of kidnappings as part of its espionage program. Soga was taken with her mother in 1978 when she was 19 years old. Arirang TV
I might add, the URL links here, and above, may only work for a few more hours. The links usually go down after a day. If you have not seen the video yet, now is the time!
He betrayed this country, letting him say I am sorry and then come back into this country don't cut it. A defector from North Korea would be a Korean that came over to our side, this bastard is a traitor to America there a very large difference between the two. I am sorry for his wife and children, but as far as I am concerned he can rot in the communist paradise he defected to. As far what he can tell us, I am sure the north koreans didn't trust him as far they could throw him
In viewing the Japanese video again, what really appears to have surprised and pissed off the three North Korean agents down there following him, was his appearance at the Japanese ambassadors residence, where he, Jenkins, so quickly had taken off his Kim Il Sung lapel badge (a strong sign of disrespect to North Korea). I'll bet they were trying to reach him urgently to order him to put it back on, even though they have no custody over him at the moment. I wonder which friend(s) of the girls the Northies are holding and have threatened to torture or kill up there in North Korea if the Jenkins' family does not 'behave' down there in Indonesia??
It seems likely that he did betray his country and deserves punishment on some metaphysical level. On the other hand, with the world watching, we need to consider the propaganda value of the courses of action open to us. While I doubt the North Koreans trusted him much, they may well have had to depend on him for things we cannot know until we talk with him. Likewise, he may know a great deal he is unaware he knows, things that he can tell us that will corroborate (or discredit) other information we have. Actually punishing this guy is probably less important, IMHO, than getting the most intelligence and propagand mileage out of him.
Hell, all he was was a propaganda piece for the N Koreans. Snatch him, try him and jail him for the rest of his miserable life.
Until the next Democratic President comes along and pardons him...
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