Published: Jun 21, 2005 WELDON, N.C. (AP) - On one of his final days in the United States, U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins apologized for his more than 40-year-old decision to abandon his post for life in North Korea.
Posted on 06/20/2005 11:09:39 PM PDT by TheOtherOne
Army Deserter Charles Jenkins Apologizes for Deserting Army for North Korea
Published: Jun 21, 2005 WELDON, N.C. (AP) - On one of his final days in the United States, U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins apologized for his more than 40-year-old decision to abandon his post for life in North Korea.
Jenkins reportedly was to leave his boyhood home of North Carolina as early as Tuesday morning for an afternoon flight from Dulles International Airport to Tokyo and then head to Japan island where he now lives. But his sister's house in Weldon, where he held a news conference Monday, remained quiet early Tuesday.
At that news conference, Jenkins said his decision to defect to communist North Korea in 1965 was wrong.
"I let my soldiers down. I let the U.S. Army down. I let the government down, and I made it very difficult for my family in the United States to live," Jenkins said.
The 65-year-old Jenkins said he lived in harsh conditions in North Korea. While there, he thought he would never again see his mother, Pattie. They were reunited last week.
Jenkins was a 24-year-old sergeant with the U.S. Army's 1st Calvary Division when he left the squad he was leading on patrol in the Demilitarized Zone and walked into North Korea on July 5, 1965.
While he appeared in North Korean propaganda films and taught English, Jenkins said North Korean agents were never able to break him and he was never brainwashed. On Monday, he called North Korean leader Kim Jong Il "an evil man."
"He only believes in one thing - his own personal luxury life," he said.
Jenkins remained in North Korea after his Japanese-born wife, who had been kidnapped from Japan in 1978, returned to her home country in 2002. The couple was reunited last year in Japan, where he was court-martialed and served 25 days in a U.S. military jail.
Jenkins' wife, Hitomi Soga, called for more attention in the United States and Japan to the plight of Japanese abductees she said remain in North Korea.
"There are still people in North Korea who were abducted, and I want more people from Japan and America to pay attention and help solve this problem," Soga said through an interpreter.
The couple - along with their two daughters, who accompanied them on their visit to North Carolina - have no plans to move permanently back to the United States. Jenkins has said the primary purpose of his weeklong trip was to visit his ailing mother and make a final visit to his homeland.
"He's certainly not a hero. He didn't get a parade coming home," Michael Cooke, of Raleigh, a boyhood friend and Vietnam veteran, said Monday. "What he did was a despicable thing."
But Cooke said he spent more than two hours Friday night catching up with Jenkins, his family and three other old friends from their days as boys in Rich Square, a town about 30 miles southeast of Weldon.
Cooke brought along old photos and a copy of the 1954 Rich Square telephone book to help remember names long forgotten.
They spent no time asking Jenkins why he deserted, or about how he lived for decades in one of the world's most isolated countries.
"We didn't get into any of that heavy stuff," Cooke said. "We didn't get an apology."
The most telling moment of their reunion, Cooke said, was seeing the joy in Jenkins' 91-year-old mother's eyes. "Ms. Jenkins seemed as happy as she could be to have her son home," he said.
When asked Monday about reuniting with his mother, Jenkins became emotional.
"It's very difficult to express, to put into words, how I feel," he said. "I didn't feel I would ever see her again."
AP-ES-06-21-05 0131EDT
"I let my soldiers down. I let the U.S. Army down. I let the government down, and I made it very difficult for my family in the United States to live," Jenkins said.
The 65-year-old Jenkins said he lived in harsh conditions in North Korea. While there, he thought he would never again see his mother, Pattie. They were reunited last week.
Jenkins was a 24-year-old sergeant with the U.S. Army's 1st Calvary Division when he left the squad he was leading on patrol in the Demilitarized Zone and walked into North Korea on July 5, 1965.
While he appeared in North Korean propaganda films and taught English, Jenkins said North Korean agents were never able to break him and he was never brainwashed. On Monday, he called North Korean leader Kim Jong Il "an evil man."
"Sorry, about that defection thingy."
Quite a consequence for a mother to endure for over 40 yrs. At least she was able to see her son.
The treasonous bastard should have been shot, then stood up and shot again.
After that, I would have thrown his body to wild pigs.
Better yet, put a parachute on him and drop him back in NK.
yeah yeah whatever...as long as our thirst for revenge is quenched that's all that matters.
You betcha!
Keep around and beat him with rubber hoses.
Seriously, I think he served his time up there in the PRK. What in the world was he thinking? The RVN for a year or the PRK for the rest of your miserable life.
A traitor no doubt, but at least he feels remorse for his actions which is much better than what we have come to expect from some of the traitors we have at work today in the U.S. Senate.
So this pathetic traitor won't get his pension and he was "imprisoned" for 25 days and he is free to roam the country, talk to the media, and he will start a new life in a country that is allied to the U.S. And yet Senator Durbin seems to think that America is a cruel, unforgiving "Nazi" country. Maybe Mr. Durbin should go to North Korea and stay there since America is so bad.
Wonder if this Dude learned anything living in NK for 20+ years.. NK of all places.. Man, he must be dumb..
He forgets to mention that he let down his family, which refused to believe that he was a defector. Until recently, the family was public in its campaign to convince others that Jenkins was kidnapped.
And he humiliated them and abused their trust, all because of his own cowardice. What a pathetic old wanker.
He would have been better off doing 20 years of hard labor at a military prison than the life he chose. Let it be.
Soga is the big story in this one and the sad story--nobody seems to be listening to her about all the Japanese still up there in the DPRK who were kidnapped.
And, the big question, WHY did "Super" (his nickname), do it??? I guess it was just immaturity and he got pissed off one day on a whim, at the CO or his unit leader, and just decided then and there to take a stroll across the MDL. A combination of being 24 years old, stupid, unpatriotic and bullied a bit through life including in the military. What a jerk. He paid for it, though. If he had remorse soon after he did it (I hope) he must have sh*t his pants realizing there was no going back to North Carolina and Momma once in Pyongyang under Kim Il Sung.
Soga was his passport out of that place. If it were'nt for her love, and an almost over- benevolent US Military 40 years later (up to the President who knows this case), and Prime Minister Koizumi, why Jug Ears still be up there living in hell.
You mean JUGHEAD.. Man, defecting to North Korea..
Becoming a Quadriplegic (in the U.S.)would almost be preferable.. to that..
His sentence should be, being allowed to see what hes missed.. in Leavenworth.. on TV.. Even leavenworth is better than North Korea.. by a long shot..
AFTER being properly debriefed..
What was he thinking? He wasn't
I really don't feel any more anger, though. Living in that stalinist hell hole for 40 years and losing his country and family is harsh enough punishment for me.
I agree with you.
While my first thought is execution, his life in N. Korea must have been hell.
And coming 'home' and seeing what he threw away is enough punishment.
Not enough for me.
If I ever see his lame ass on the Yamanote I am definitely going to express my displeasure with his actions -- physically.
Jenkins defected because he built some weird fantasy about being treated like some mythical God-king in North Korea. His actions were totally self-centered, selfish and absolutely treasonous. He may not have gotten what he expected -- if you believe him (which I don't) but so what?
The very thought of him walking on the sacred soil of the United States as a free man is painful to me. If I had been the JAG negotiating his plea bargain, one stipulation I would have insisted on would have been that he renounce his American citizenship and promise never to return to the U.S.
OK, he's Soga's husband and she has obviously suffered enough. He is going to live the rest of his life in Japan, a free man JUST because of that.
I, however, do not forgive, and will not forget.
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