Ex US deserter to NKorea who married Japan abductee dies

Charles Robert Jenkins (Photo By Joi – Own work, CC BY 3.0)

TOKYO— Charles Jenkins, a U.S Army deserter to North Korea who married a Japanese abductee and lived in Japan after their release, has died. He was 77.

A group representing families of Japanese abductees to North Korea said Tuesday that Jenkins died the day before.

Jenkins, of Rich Square, North Carolina, was found collapsed outside his home in Sado, northern Japan, rushed to a hospital and later pronounced dead. The cause of death wasn’t released.

Jenkins disappeared in January 1965 while patrolling along the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea. He came to Japan in 2004 to be with his wife Hitomi Soga, who was kidnapped to North Korea in 1978 but allowed to visit home in 2002 and stayed. The two met in North Korea and had two daughters.