Army Deserter Charles Jenkins Apologizes

Associated Press | June 21, 2005

[robowombat]

Army Deserter Charles Jenkins Apologizes Associated Press June 21, 2005

WELDON, N.C. - 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."

[Sidebar Moderator]

Do you have a link for this?

Thanks

[wideawake]

I really don't care about his apology. I'm more interested in why he did what he did.

[lilylangtree]

Since the US gave all the Vietnam deserters and draft dodgers like clintoon a free pass (h*ll, one made a prez), the US gave this deserter and traitor a free pass too.

[stylecouncilor]

He'll probably get a $500,000 book deal!

[Rakkasan1]

he was so ronery...

[Niteranger68]

Sure, we can all do whatever we want. Just apologize later and everything will be OK. BS & FU!!!!!! Jenkins belongs in Gitmo.....for life!!!!!

[OldFriend]

He made his choice, abandoned his fellow soldiers, his family, his country.

Rot in hell, TRAITOR

[OldFriend]

He has gotten asylum in Japan.

[MBB1984]

I appreciate the appology. However, he should be executed for treason.

[Minus_The_Bear]

According to the Army there have been upward of 22,000 desertions since 1997. Unfortunately its not all that uncommon.

[robowombat]

A number of papers ran the AP story complete. Here, for instance, is it in the San Diego Union: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20050621-0321-deserterreturns.html

[Responsibility1st]

On Monday, he called North Korean leader Kim Jong Il "an evil man."

I say we decline his apology and ship his sorry butt back to North Korea.

[SaltyJoe]

How would the North Koreans handle a returning deserter?

Thank Heavens we have an all volunteer US Military today.

That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.

- Henry V, Shakespeare

Spending 4 decade in North Korea is a harder sentence than what the US military would give (and no, being executed via shot or hung is not harder than 4 decades in North Korea). Hoping to get an easy out in NK shows that many are capable of making mistakes of poor judgment. But Jenkins met his wife and they have 2 daughters--proof that God works through our mistakes. The hardliners of DPRK will regret Jenkin's freedom.

The mercy shown to Jenkins for his youthful mistake makes the Communist regime look all the more sinister...if that's possible.

[oh8eleven]

where he was court-martialed and served 25 days in a U.S. military jail.
He should have been sentenced to 40 years in N. Korea.