Defector from NC sees abductee wife off at North Korea airport

Defector from NC sees abductee wife off at North Korea airport

By AUDREY McAVOY, Associated Press Writer
October 15, 2002 9:24 am

TOKYO -- An American soldier listed as a defector to North Korea saw his Japanese wife off at the airport in Pyongyang on Tuesday as she joined four others returning to Japan for the first time since they were abducted by North Korean spies nearly 25 years ago.

But Charles Robert Jenkins of Rich Square, N.C., listed as a deserter from the U.S. Army since the 1960s, told a Japanese official traveling with the abductees that he had no desire to leave his adopted home.

Jenkins and his two daughters were at the airport to see off Hitomi Soga, said Akitaka Saiki, a Japanese official who traveled with the returning abduction victims.

Saiki said he met with Jenkins and asked if he would like to go to Japan as well. Jenkins replied that he was in Japan in the 1960s, but indicated it would not be easy for him to go to Japan again "given his situation," Saiki said.

Kyoko Nakayama, another Japanese official sent to escort the Japanese abductees home for a short visit before they return to the North, said Jenkins stood by the fence at the airport waving to the plane as it departed.

Jenkins was one of four Americans who deserted their Army posts in South Korea in the 1960s. The Pentagon first confirmed that the four were alive and living in North Korea in 1996.

North Korean officials confirmed last month that he had married Soga, one of at least 13 Japanese the North kidnapped in the late 1970s and early 1980s to help train its spies in the Japanese language and culture.

According to the North, Jenkins, 62, entered North Korea in January 1965 and married Soga, 43, in August 1980. They have two daughters -- ages 19 and 17 -- both students at the Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies.

Soga was abducted from Japan's secluded Sado Island while shopping with her mother in August 1978. Pyongyang said Soga was kidnapped with the help of a Japanese operative it refused to identify.

In 1997, the Pentagon sought to contact Jenkins and the three other defectors to see if they knew anything about other Americans missing from the 1950-53 Korean War who possibly ended up in the North. Pyongyang said the four were North Korean citizens and did not wish to talk with U.S. officials.

The Pentagon repeated the request in 2000. Although North Korea did not outright reject it, no contacts ever followed.

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I don't blame him for not wanting to come here - he's probably done things he deserves to be executed for. I feel sorry for his wife though. I even feel sorry for him in a certain way. He may or may not know that most other Americans who defect there either live as virtual prisoners or are executed as soon as they outlive their usefulness.

The fact that he still lives suggests that he has remained a useful idiot for the Reds. Most likely he teaches Korean spies how to speak perfect English and pass themselves off as South Koreans or Japanese students and businessmen. His wife would make a good partner in such an enterprise.

I hope we keep an eye on the kids too - They probably look like many of the American offspring of servicemen and native women who can easily blend in near military bases. They most likely speak English and Japanese without any detectable accent. The only thing that would possibly give them away is an unfamiliarity with certain aspects of 90s and 00s pop culture.

Meanwhile we have almost nothing on the North Koreans. The West (I include Japan in this category) is going to pay DEARLY for letting Kim's son escape back to China after trying to sneak once more into Japan. We could have held his whole family prisoner and demanded MASSIVE concessions from the North Koreans lest the younger Kim and his wife/concubine face severe criminal penalties for actual or trumped up crimes. We BLEW IT, bigtime!

http://www.ipsystems.com/powmia/documents/DpMonkor.html

DPMO & KOREA

The following is a reproduction of the photocopies of DPMO (Defence POW MIA Office) regarding Americans being held in Korea.

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Background Paper Accountability of Missing Americans From the Korean War Live-Sighting Reports

The U.S. Government has received numerous reports concerning Americans living or detained in North Korea after the prisoner exchanges with North Korea in 1953. Based on number of unaccounted for personnel captured by the Communist forces and not returned from the Korean War, and a number of recent live American sightings in North Korea, the DPMO concludes that there are two groups of Americans in North Korea... a small group of defectors and a larger group of 10-15 possible POWs.

A small group of four personnel is comprised of American soldiers who defected to North Korea in 1960's. Based on U.S. Army files, North Korean literature and North Korean movie, entitled "Nameless Heroes", these defectors appear to be in North Korea on their own volition. They are Private Larry A. Abshier, Private First Class James J. Dresnok, Specialist Four Jerry W. Parrish, and Sergeant Charles R. Jenkins.

According to North Korean defectors, PFC Dresnok is married to a North Korean and has a daughter. One of the North Korean defectors met SGT. Jenkins in a coffee shop in Pyongyang. SGT. Jenkins told the North Korean defector that he is now ready to return to America. The American deserters live in the "foreigner's apartments", Chukehon-dong, Mangyongdas-kuyok, west-side of Pyongyang.

A second, larger group of Americans is comprised of US service members, most likely POWs, from the Korean War and possible Vietnam War era. There have been numerous reports of both American and British POWs in North Korea. One of the most compelling reports received over the years was a sighting reported to DoD by a Romanian in 17 Feb. 1988.

On October 1979, Mr. Oprica, a former Romanian, now a naturalized U.S. citizen, along with other Romanians employed at a North Korean factory in Pyongyang was on a North Korean Government sponsored sight seeing trip. During this bus trip, the bus driver appeared to be disoriented and drove the bus through a collective farm. During this trip, he observed 7-10 Caucasians, including one individual with blue eyes, working in the fields. The workers appeared to be in their 50's.

Mr Oprica was told by a female passenger that the Caucasian farmers were American prisoners of war. Mr. Oprica was unable to recall who the lady was and how she determined the Caucasian farmers were American POWs.

On 24 Nov. 95, another passenger on the bus, Mr. Flarin Tomescii, was finally located in Romania and interviewed. He confirmed seeing Caucasians working on a farm and the location of the collective farm to be somewhere between Pyongyang and the city of Nampa.

Since the Oprica/Tomescii sightings, a variety of additional sightings reports have been received, culminating in a recent flurry (last 60 days) of very compelling reports. The following summarizes these reports:

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

1. All "American POWs" were under the direct control of the Ministry of People's Armed Forces (MPAF) and were residing in various sections withing the Pyongyang city area and they were always escorted and moved in a vehicle with a license plates belonging to the MPAF, the reconnaissance bureau, or the Ministry of Social Safety.

2. "Black and white" Americans were seen shopping together in a foreigners only, western goods store. The number of Americans sighted generally ranged from 10-15, with a few recent citing as many as 40-50. One defector cited that since 1978, he learned that over 60 American POWs lived in Pyongyang proper. Some are married to Koreans and have children.

3. One defector stated that in the film "Nameless Heroes" a black POW played a role of a house servant for the American policy officer, Dr. Kelton. The "Nameless Heroes" film has 20-21 segments, and, the DPMO is in the process of obtaining them to determine if this information is accurate.

4. Several defector reports cite that there have been numerous Americans teaching English and American customs at the foreign language department in Amnokgang College or a military reconnaissance school in Pyongyang. These English language instructors are sometimes identified as U.S. defectors, but more frequently as "American POWs".

5. According to escorts, many POWs desired to remain to U.S.

6. The analysis of numerous live sighting reports correlate that American POWs live in a group compounds in various locations in Pyongyang and its suburbs, and perhaps other places in DPRK. POWs movements in DPRK are apparently controlled by the North Korean Government.

7. In the summer of 1976, a North Korean defector visited a cooperative farm located in the outskirts of Pyongyang. There he met a Caucasian man of about 60 years old, 180cm tall with a large body. The Caucasian told the defector that he was an American. He asked one of the women who the American was, and the woman told him that the American was an American POW from the Korean Liberation War.

There are too many live sighting reports, specifically observations of several Caucasians in a collective farm by Romanians and the North Korean defectors' eyewitness of Americans in DPRK to dismiss that there are no American POWs in North Korea.

Prepared by I.O. Lee DPMO
As of: 01/26/96
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

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