Hints at plea bargain for alleged US deserter

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 the procedure was expected to include an arraignment and would essentially mark the start of steps leading to a plea bargain.

Jenkins 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 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 abducted by North Korean agents and kept there for decades. She met and married Jenkins there and they had two daughters.

Her 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 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.