Accused U.S. army deserter wants family to remain together
Accused U.S. army deserter wants family to remain together
Agencies, Jakarta/Raleigh, North Carolina
Two days after an emotional reunion with his Japanese wife, an American army sergeant who fled to North Korea 40 years ago said he wants the family to remain together but has yet to say where they would live, a Japanese official said on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the family of Charles Robert Jenkins in the U.S. state of North Carolina has reportedly asked U.S. President George W. Bush to pardon him.
Jenkins and his two daughters had an emotional meeting with his wife, Hitomi Soga, at Jakarta's international airport on Friday before going to a five-star hotel in central Jakarta.
They have remained holed up in their 14th floor suite ever since, Japanese officials said, talking, watching television and eating. But so far, their future has yet to be addressed.
"It's too early for the Japanese government to bring up that discussion," Kyoko Nakayama, special adviser to the Japanese cabinet, told a press conference. "He told us 'the four of us want to stay together always."'
Jenkins' family had its first home cooking in nearly two years this weekend, in their room at a luxury downtown Jakarta hotel.
Soga cooked curry rice for her husband Jenkins and their daughters Mika and Belinda in the presidential suite, Nakayama said.
"Last night they had curry rice cooked by Mrs Soga by herself. They had sandwiches from room service this morning. So far they haven't left their rooms." said one Japanese official, translating remarks by Nakayama's to the media.
The official said Jenkins had undergone a post-surgery medical check by a Japanese doctor since arriving in Jakarta, but the translators did not elaborate.
Jenkins, 64, and wife Hitomi Soga, 45, would not be leaving Jakarta on Sunday, Japanese embassy spokesman, Toshihide Kawasaki, told AFP.
Kawasaki declined to give further details, including whether the family would venture out of their two-bedroom suite at a luxury hotel here.
Jenkins is believed to be making his first trip outside North Korea since he disappeared near the border with South Korea in 1965.
Nakayama who met Jenkins earlier on Sunday, told Japanese journalists that Jenkins had been "lively" and had talked about his first meeting with Soga and how they married shortly afterward.
"The four of us should always stay together," Jenkins told her during the conversation, she said.
But there was no further detail on where they could stay together.
Meanwhile, the Raleigh News and Observer reported that lawyer James B. Craven III mailed a petition on Friday to the Justice Department on behalf of Jenkins' family in North Carolina,
Jenkins is still wanted on U.S. desertion charges. He was serving in an Army unit based on the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea when he disappeared during a routine patrol in 1965.
A few weeks later, the Army announced that Jenkins had deserted to North Korea.
Craven said Bush would have ample precedent for granting a pardon because former presidents granted executive clemency to Vietnam War resisters, soldiers who were absent without leave and those who, like Jenkins, were accused of desertion but never tried.
Jenkins' family in North Carolina has had no contact with him since 1965. His mother, now 91, is in poor health.
"I just thought it was time to do this," Craven said. Craven said he doesn't expect any decision to come before the November election.
Jenkins' nephew, James Hyman, said on Friday he has not seen his uncle since he was 4.
"Seeing his face this morning in television, to be out and be free, it was like he was actually happy to be out of North Korea," he said.