N. Korean officials' request to meet Jenkins rejected

N. Korean officials' request to meet Jenkins rejected

Agencies, Jakarta

Japan has rejected a request by North Korean officials to meet an
alleged U.S. army deserter who lived in North Korea for decades
and is now in Indonesia for a reunion with his Japanese wife, an
official said on Monday.

Three North Korean officials traveling with Charles Robert
Jenkins from the communist state to Jakarta had asked several
times to meet him in his hotel suite, said Hiroshi Oguma, an
official with Japan's Cabinet Secretariat.

"We are focusing on providing a quiet atmosphere (for the
reunion) and we hope that the North Koreans understand this,"
Oguma told a press briefing without saying why the North Koreans
wanted a meeting.

"We are trying to make sure that not just anyone can meet
them," he said, adding that calls to the family's suite in a
luxury Jakarta hotel had been barred.

Jenkins, 64 and their two daughters, Mika and Belinda, arrived
on a chartered flight from Pyongyang on Friday evening and had a
tearful airport reunion with his wife Hitomi Soga, 45, who flew
from Japan.

Jenkins and his family had dinner on Sunday at the residence
of Japan's ambassador and the girls enjoyed the sight of
"beautiful" Jakarta at night, said Oguma.

"This morning they watched a Harry Potter movie in English
with Korean subtitles," said Hiroshi Oguma, a Japanese government
official in charge of helping victims of abduction.

It was unclear which installment of the Harry Potter saga the
family watched.

The third and latest movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban, has become one of this year's best-selling movies
worldwide.

Soga has been cooking traditional food for her family in the
suite, although they ordered a full continental-style breakfast
of coffee, toast and juice on Monday.

"Last night, after having dinner with the Japanese ambassador,
the daughters watched Japanese animated movies. They watched five
movies, and, since they (the movies) were in Japanese, Mrs Soga
had to translate into Korean," Hiroshi said.

"They smile a lot and they look prettier," he said.

Officials were trying give the family privacy, he said.

"We are trying to provide an environment where Mrs Soga can
have a chat and therefore we are trying to facilitate this."

Jenkins is believed to be making his first trip outside North
Korea since he disappeared near the border with South Korea in
1965. The daughters had never left the North and had never
traveled on a plane until last Friday.

Soga was kidnapped from the Japanese island of Sado in 1978
while on a shopping trip and taken to North Korea to teach its
spies Japanese language and customs.

She married Jenkins in 1980, apparently after they met when he
was teaching her English.

It remains unclear how long the family will remain in
Indonesia.