U.S. to seek custody of accused deserter
(CNN) -- Charles Robert Jenkins, a U.S. Army sergeant accused of defecting to North Korea 39 years ago, is facing serious health problems and may head to Japan for medical treatment. If he does, the United States will seek to take him into custody.
At a State Department briefing in Washington, spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States views Jenkins as a deserter charged with "extremely serious offenses."
"We understand Japan plans to bring him there for medical treatment. Once he is there, he falls under Japanese-U.S. status policy. We intend to request custody when we have legal opportunity to do so," Boucher said.
Jenkins and his two daughters left North Korea last week and went to Indonesia -- a country that has no extradition treaty with the United States -- and was reunited with his Japanese wife.
The family had been separated for two years. Previously they lived in North Korea.
Some officials hope Jenkins could provide the United States with valuable information on the reclusive communist nation, which Washington accuses of having a nuclear weapons program.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker said in Tokyo he understood Jenkins needs "an abdominal operation."
"This man is in terrible shape," Baker said. "His health circumstances are really barely short of extreme, and I have no doubt that he's in need of skillful medical attention."
Baker said that while "the U.S. government is sympathetic to his health concerns," he is "still classified as a deserter and when we can gain custody of him, he will be charged."
Jenkins' wife, Hitomi Soga, arrived in North Korea in 1978 after she was kidnapped by agents for North Korea. She was one of at least 15 Japanese citizens grabbed to help train North Korean spies.
But in 2002, she returned to her homeland as part of a program to improve bilateral relations between Japan and North Korea.
Fourteen years ago, while still being held in North Korea, she met and married Jenkins, an American soldier who disappeared from his U.S. Army unit near Korea's De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) in 1965.
After his disappearance, Jenkins appeared in propaganda films and lived in North Korea for nearly four decades.
Afraid he would be arrested and extradited to the United States, Jenkins did not join his wife when she left for Japan two years ago.
During that time, he and his two daughters, Mika and Belinda, waited for Soga's return while Japan, North Korea and the United States debated their fate.
 |  Jenkins with Soga and daughters Belinda, left, and Mika during their stay in Jakarta. |
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell noted that while the Japanese were treating the situation as a humanitarian issue, "Sgt. Jenkins is, of course, a deserter from the U.S. Army and those charges are still outstanding."
Last week the foreign ministers of Japan and North Korea agreed to allow the family to reunite in Indonesia.
"They are allowed to stay one month. Of course, we will be flexible if they need more time to stay longer in Indonesia," Hassan Wirayuda, Indonesian foreign minister, said of the plan.
