A US Army sergeant accused of deserting to North Korea in 1965 and now hospitalized in Japan will soon move to a US airbase in Tokyo to begin talks on a plea bargain, a Japanese newspaper said yesterday.
Charles Robert Jenkins, 64, was brought to Japan for medical care last month after being reunited with his Japanese wife, Hitomi Soga, and their two daughters in Jakarta on July 9.
The US has said it wants him to face a court-martial but has held off seeking custody while he is in hospital.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun daily said that Jenkins could move to Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo this week to attend a preliminary hearing ahead of a court-martial.
But an official with the US military in Japan denied the report and a source familiar with the case said it was too early for such a development.
"To our knowledge, there's no truth to it," the military official said.
Nikkei said the procedure was expected to include an arraignment and would essentially mark the start of steps leading to a plea bargain.
Jenkins would return to his Tokyo hospital after the hearing and the court-martial would take place at a different US military base at a later date, the paper added.
The fate of the army sergeant is a sensitive diplomatic issue as Tokyo wants Jenkins to be able to live in Japan with his family.
Speculation has mounted that a plea bargain might be the most likely solution as US President George W. Bush is thought to be reluctant to give Jenkins special treatment, which may not go down well with veterans ahead of November's presidential election.
Soga was abducted by North Korean agents and kept there for decades. She met and married Jenkins there and they had two daughters.
Her plight has attracted widespread sympathy in Japan since she was allowed to return home with other abductees two years ago.
In addition to desertion, Jenkins has been charged with aiding the enemy, encouraging disloyalty and soliciting other service members to desert, according to the US military.
Washington says that Jenkins slipped into North Korea during a border patrol in January 1965. He appeared in anti-US propaganda films and did not leave North Korea until July.
His American relatives say there is no proof he deserted and insist he was kidnapped and brainwashed by North Korea.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS