Koizumi plans to seek U.S. 'consideration' for Jenkins
Koizumi plans to seek U.S. 'consideration' for Jenkins
Isabel Reynolds, Reuters/Tokyo
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Monday he plans to seek special consideration from Washington for an accused U.S. Army deserter who married a Japanese woman during their long stay in North Korea.
Washington accuses Charles Robert Jenkins, who arrived in Japan on Sunday with his wife, Hitomi Soga, and their two daughters, of deserting to the communist North 39 years ago. He met Soga after she was abducted by Pyongyang agents in the 1970s.
"I think we have to negotiate with the United States while he is being treated for his illness and, if possible, seek special consideration," Koizumi told reporters on a visit to Niigata, northwest of Tokyo, which has been hit by severe flooding.
"For the time being, we want to create a situation where he can focus on his treatment," Kyodo news agency quoted Koizumi as adding.
Jenkins, 64, has been admitted to a Tokyo hospital where he is to be examined by Japanese doctors on Tuesday.
The United States has repeatedly said it would have the right to request custody of Jenkins if he came to Japan.
The American ambassador to Japan has said U.S. authorities may delay the request out of consideration for Jenkins' health problems. Analysts say there may be a tacit agreement to try to avoid a row with Japan, a key U.S. ally.
The former army sergeant spent his first full day in Japan on Monday relaxing with his family after risking arrest by flying in for medical treatment.
"They will be taking it easy at the hospital, where they have adjacent rooms," a Japanese government official said.
Jenkins, Soga and their North Korea-born daughters Mika, 21, and Belinda, 18, flew to Tokyo on Sunday from Jakarta. It was his first stop after Pyongyang since Indonesia has no extradition treaty with the United States.
"I don't think they are at all in a fit state to go out," the official said.
The couple's daughters have at times appeared bewildered since their reunion with their mother in Indonesia last week. Soga returned to Japan, along with four other Japanese abductees, in 2002. She had to leave her family behind.
On Sunday the two girls had swapped the red North Korean badges they had worn since leaving on July 9 for blue ribbons, symbols of the Japanese abducted by North Korea.
Medical examinations and treatment would begin on Tuesday since Monday is a public holiday, the official said. Japanese officials say Jenkins has not recovered from a stomach operation in North Korea earlier this year.
After appearing relatively fit when he arrived in Jakarta last week, Jenkins disembarked in Tokyo looking frail and bent and walked across the airport tarmac leaning on a cane and on the arm of his wife. He entered the hospital in a wheelchair.
Jenkins, originally from North Carolina, was a 24-year-old army sergeant on night patrol near the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea in 1965 when he left his men to check a noise.
He surfaced in the North where the United States says he became part of the communist state's propaganda machine.
Some U.S. relatives say he was kidnapped and brainwashed.
Soga was a student nurse in 1978 when North Korean agents kidnapped her and her mother in a Japanese coastal town as the two women returned from buying groceries.
She was gagged, flung in a sack and put on a boat to North Korea. Her mother, Miyoshi, has not been heard from since.
Soga's determination to be reunited with her family in her home country has gained her widespread public sympathy in Japan, where her story has dominated news headlines in recent weeks.