Posted on 10/21/2005 1:59:38 AM PDT by Jet Jaguar
In his first U.S. television interview, the former U.S. Army sergeant who deserted to North Korea speaks for the first time about the abuse and control inflicted on him by the communist dictatorship over his nearly 40 years there. Charles Robert Jenkins tells Scott Pelley he Êhad a "U.S. Army" tattoo sliced off without anesthetic and was even told how often to have sex by his communist "leaders" in a 60 MINUTES interview to be broadcast Sunday, Oct. 23 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
In 1965, Jenkins was posted along the hostile border between North and South Korea. He says he was being asked to lead increasingly aggressive patrols and was wary that he might be sent to Vietnam. ÊAnd so, on a sub-zero night, he says he drank 10 beers, abandoned his squad, and walked through a mine-field to surrender to the North.Ê He says he thought he would be sent to Russia and exchanged in some Cold War swap. But he was wrong. "It was the worst mistake anyone ever made," he tells Pelley. "In words I cannot express the feelings I have towards North Korea, the harassment I got. The hard life."
That life included forced studying of the writings of the communist dictator Kim Il Sung. ÊHe says he and three other American deserters were forced to study eight hours a day for seven years. The studying was imposed by communist government handlers called "leaders." They also assigned him a Korean Êwoman, with whom he was supposed to have sexÊ twice a month. "The leaders almost tell her when to do it, and I got in a big fight one time over it," recalls Jenkins.ÊÊ "I told [the leader], 'It's none of his business if I want sleep with her. She wants to sleep -- we sleep.' 'No -- two times a month'" He says he was severely punished for talking back. "That's the worst beating I ever got -- over that," he tells Pelley, showing a scar where he says his teeth came through his lower lip.
Worse still, says Jenkins, was the pain he endured when someone saw his U.S. Army tattoo.Ê He says the North Koreans held him down and cut the words, "U.S. Army," off with a scalpel and scissors -- without giving him any painkiller. "They told me the anesthetic was for the battlefield," says Jenkins, "It was hell."
During his first 15 years in North Korea, Jenkins says he led a lonely and desperate life. Then his North Korean "leaders" brought a young Japanese woman to his door. She had been kidnapped from her homeland by North Korean agents.Ê The Êonly thing they had in common at first was that they hated North Korea, Jenkins says, but the relationship blossomed. They raised two children. Kim Jong Il's decision in 2002 to allow Jenkins' wife and other surviving abductees to return to Japan paved the way for Jenkins' release last year.
Each night before going to bed in North Korea, Jenkins said good night to his wife in Japanese, rather than Korean. He did it, he tells Pelley, to Ê"remind her that she's still Japanese,Ê that she's not Korean.Ê She's not obligated to Korea.Ê She is Japanese... and she spoke to me in English -- every night.Ê Regardless of how hard things got, we always stuck as one."
When Jenkins finally stepped outside the North Korean culture after 40 years, he was most surprised to see women in the Army, limits on where you could smoke and black policemen. He had never heard of 60 MINUTES and thought Life magazine would be the place where he would tell his story. He knew something about the 1969 moon landing, however. "I was told that by the Koreans, one of the officers. They wouldn't say what country, but they said, 'Una handa la'... some country landed on the moon."
What*in*the*hail* are you talking about?
We've been doing that for years! What...you never heard of a "journalist" before?
Ain't done the first bit of good yet!
Ditto. Doen't he have to face Desertion charges?
Another fine examples of the wonderments of the WORKERS' PARADISE.
All America trashers should join these deserters in North Korea. It's such a wonderful and liberating way to spend your life. It is such an improvement over living here in totalitarian neo con America.
I won't watch 60 Minutes for any reason, even an interview that confirms common sense. I am curious, though not enough to watch. Was this interview conducted in Leavenworth Prison?
He may have done the the crime, and although he didn't intend it, he most certainly did the time. 40 years hard labor.
Army Deserter Charles Jenkins Apologizes for Deserting Army for North Korea
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1427148/posts
Army Deserter Recalls Abuse in N. Korea
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1506295/posts
Deserter regrets 40 years in N.Korea
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1295710/posts
US deserter sentenced after 39 years in N. Korea
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1268573/posts
Four decades after he vanished into North Korea, an American soldier today pleaded guilty before a US military court to desertion and tearfully recounted how depression and fear of death drove him to defect.
Sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins, now a frail 64-year-old, was given a light 30-day jail term in a case that had pitted American demands for justice with Tokyo’s call for leniency so Jenkins could settle down in Japan with his Japanese wife.
In gripping court-martial testimony that shed light on a long-standing Cold War mystery, Jenkins said that he never intended to stay in North Korea, and detailed the harsh treatment - including beatings - he was subject to since defecting to the Stalinist state in 1965.
Jenkins, in full military dress for the proceedings on a US Army base outside Tokyo, boldly owned up to his crimes.
From the last article. He got off with minimal punishment.
He made his own bed. Screw him and the horse he rode in on.
Some folks like to say stupidity should be painful. In Sgt. Jenkins case, it worked out that way. No sympathy.
Some folks like to say stupidity should be painful. In Sgt. Jenkins case, it worked out that way. No sympathy.
But at least he wasn't forced to wear panties on his head.
He deserted during a war and went over to the enemy. If it was up to me he'd be in an American prison with a cell mate named Bubba telling him when to have sex. I have no sympathy for traitors.
Ah, a picture of life under kerry, kenndy, snowe and susie collins, what bliss, what..
Yeh, but the NK's didn't put women's panties on his head.
We know how much of an atrocity that is---thanks to the MSM's coverage of Abu Ghraib.
[/sarcasm]
Send him one way on the Code Pink's Christmas Cuba trip. I'll pay for the ticket.
It is a hallmark of people taken in by leftist propaganda that they completely dismiss troubling facts, e.g. the murders of tens of millions of people in Communist dictatorships, as Capitalist propaganda designed to turn people against the idea of a socialist utopia.
I have very limited sympathy. He made a bad choice, and consequences often come from bad choices.
A lot of the traitors who stand at Snelling and Summit (St. Paul, MN) should really move to the paradise of DPRK. What the hey, some are already on the DPRK payroll (Code Pinkos, A.N.S.W.E.R., even saw one dinosaur with a Communist Party USA button).
One of my friends recently returned from Korea and he told me that falling asleep along the DMZ is one of the worst mistakes (and quite possibly your last) you could make. Apparently getting skunk drunk there is a pretty bad idea as well.
Agree... I feel sorry for the guy... An ubelievable story that he has an obligation to tell over and over again to those who believe that communism is the way.. NK is by far the worst place in the world..
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