AMERICAN SERVICEMAN CONFIRMED ALIVE IN NORTH KOREA!!! (BREAKING)

Associated Press ^ | 2 October 2002 | Yuri Kageyama

[Caesar Soze]

If he defected, let him die there. [...] If he was kidnapped, put every pressure on North Korea to turn over him and any other Americans who were either unreleased POW's or kidnapped.

Heck, why not kidnap him back? Or at least establish contact once he's found? NK will be opening a walled-off capitalist city, CIA has been recruiting a Korean Language Officer/s for months ... once that "Westernized" city is opened up, it should be child's play to recruit Korean agents or put in illegals of our own. If he wants out, we send over another Candian movie crew. If he doesn't, well, other options can be considered.

[AntiGuv]

Yeah, but to North Korea?! Remember the four guys that were snatched briefly by Iraq and then returned? Or the three guys that were snatched by Yugoslavia? There's no telling what might've happened. I'm just unprepared to assume that they defected just because the North Koreans say so....

[Travis McGee]

Ping.

[Poohbah]

Yeah, but to North Korea?! Remember the four guys that were snatched briefly by Iraq and then returned? Or the three guys that were snatched by Yugoslavia? There's no telling what might've happened. I'm just unprepared to assume that they defected just because the North Koreans say so....

Quit looking at this through 2002 eyes and look at it through 1965 eyes. A lot of poorer red-diapered babies were drafted.

[AntiGuv]

Yes, that's an excellent point - and the note mentioned above changes the picture considerably for me. Sorry, I hadn't read that post yet.

[AntiGuv]

Which, incidentally, leads me to note that the penalties for treason are quite clear....

[fourdeuce82d]

Anybody remember that American dentist who "defected" to the Soviet Union in the mid 80's with his family? Wonder whatever happened to him...

[FormerLurker]

When he dashed across the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea while on a U.S. Army patrol on Jan. 5, 1965, Jenkins left behind a good-bye note in his barracks.

Do you have a link to that info, I can't seem to find one...

Although, notes can and have been forged on more than one occasion. Any reference that indicates the handwriting was verified as his?

[AmericanInTokyo]

I have come across the actual name of the North Korean school in municipal Pyongyang (actually it is a language institute) where former American soldiers are said to be still there, teaching English to North Korean diplomats and spies. One can assume they are socialists and there by their own volition; one can assume they were kidnapped and either held against their will, or in fact brainwashed. We should be careful on this one where we come down in judgement. The best way is to try to figure out a way to get them out of there before they are executed.

[AmericanInTokyo]

#31 makes more sense to me than #29. You thought through the problem in all possible parameters; I would not be so sure until these guys could get back to be debriefed/ or in the case of brainwashing, deprogrammed. They are probably psychos by now, though.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Only when a coup d'etat is (w/ no war damange to North Korea by the West ) successful against Kim Jong-il by disgruntled military, or perhaps within the ranks of his relatives of Big Daddy's first wife (not his true mother), with an open, pro-west gov. in place, then and only then if the NK Workers Party intelligence section internal docs/ papers are not destroyed, we could get detailed information on the fate of so many South Koreans, Japanese, and yes, Americans, who found their way into North Korea somehow. One thing is for sure, North Korean news pegs the BS Meter 100% so I think it is wise to assume that anything could happen, or that even those they said died mysteriously, are actually still alive and working for the Party.

[Lion's Cub]

From what I've heard about American in the 1960s, especially in the military, this is highly unlikely

I have to agree. Though we still had the draft, the hippies and peaceniks got college deferments or went to Canada. Those who would tend to be drawn to the "glories" of communism knew how to avoid the draft.

[AmericanInTokyo]

He was given several years of intense trainin in the people's paradise during which time his keepers could make a determination of his reliability. After training was finished he was set up in some sort of NK front company in the orient, possibly Hong Kong, and provided anmple spending money and a luxurios apartment. His initial intelligence tasks were simple so his capacity could be monitored. The monitoring and mentoring was done through a very attractive Korean female that was an employee of the front company and soon moved in with our boy.

You write in declarative tense. Is this what happened, or are you privy to information that this was the outcome of Pfc James T. White, the US defector from 1982?

[AmericanInTokyo]

That pretty much does it for me, re: Jenkins. I'd sure like to get him out, though, and administer the serum and find out how that little Potemkin village of deceipt, lies, mass murder and espionage works up there on the peninsula.

[sandydipper]

I betcha he mailed in his vote for Bill "the Dirt Bag" Clintoon.

[FormerLurker]

The 1960s ushered in Camelot and the feel good era of free love and sex etc etc. These young men certainly did not defect north for reasons of ideology or from fear of combat as there was none.

"Camelot" as you refer to the JFK administration was not about free love and sex, but rather about shutting down organized crime and standing up to the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.

Free love and sex came about around the time of Woodstock (1968), the Beatles "Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)", and the "White Album (1968)". Timothy Leary also had a significant factor in that turn of events..

To get to the point, as Jenkins was apparently a Sergeant at the time of his disappearance, he was obviously a individual who performed his duties well and followed orders. I can't fathom a reason why he'd prefer to live amongst those that hated the United States and were our sworn enemies. I can't see why he'd want to a place with the sqaulid living conditions in that country. Those who deserted to Canada (or evaded the draft there) had a life similar to that enjoyed by US Citizens here in the United States. For one to "desert" to North Korea, one would need to be more than just a few cans short of a six pack..

[AmericanInTokyo]

Talk about getting weird and even more weird, here is a short clip from a North Korean propaganda movie on the Korean War "Unknown Hero" (you have to have Quick Time)

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9601/nkorea_pow/nkorea_pows.mov

in which Sgt. Robert Jenkins was actually given a role of US soldier. It was said in connection with this movie that other former US soldiers also starred in such productions. And that 11 of them were teaching English at the Pyongyang foreign language-spy institute.

[Cold Heat]

Shoot first! Ask questions later!

[FormerLurker]

I'd say there's a good chance that his mind was a bit fried by the time he "starred" in that film. The North Koreans have some nasty ways of making a person say whatever they want them to say..