Accused Army deserter surrenders at U.S. military base in Japan

CAMP ZAMA, Japan -- Accused U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins surrendered at a U.S. military base near Tokyo today to face charges that he left his army unit in 1965 and defected to North Korea.

Jenkins, 64, turned himself in at the U.S. Army's Camp Zama accompanied by his Japanese wife and two daughters. He saluted and stood at attention before entering the provost martial's office to be put back on active duty as a sergeant.

"He'll be treated with dignity and fairness, and he's innocent until proven guilty," said Army spokesman Maj. John Amberg.

Earlier, Jenkins, looking grim but determined, left the Tokyo hospital where he has lived since arriving in Japan in July.

Jenkins is charged with defecting to the North, where he lived for 39 years, and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted. While in the reclusive communist state, he made propaganda broadcasts and played devilish Americans in anti-U.S. films.

The Rich Square, N.C., native is widely expected to strike a plea bargain with military authorities in order to receive lighter punishment. He has met several times in recent weeks with an Army-appointed attorney to prepare his case.

"I expect we have a lot more to face in the days to come," Jenkin's wife, Hitomi Soga, said as she left a Tokyo hotel earlier today. "But we hope that the four of us can live together as soon as possible."

Jenkins' fate has become the focus of intense concern in Japan because of Soga, who was one of more than a dozen Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 80s and taken to North Korea.

The United States turned down Japanese requests for special treatment for Jenkins and insisted on pursuing a case against him. Washington, however, had not requested custody while he was in the hospital out of humanitarian concerns.

Jenkins announced in a statement last week that he would soon voluntarily surrender to U.S. authorities to face the charges against him, and denied ever intending to come to Japan in order to evade prosecution.

He did not address the charges against him, but family members in North Carolina fighting to have him pardoned have argued that Jenkins was kidnapped by North Korean agents and taken there against his will.

U.S. authorities, however, say they have letters by Jenkins showing he intended to defect.

Jenkins' nephew, James Hyman, who argues he has evidence his uncle is innocent, said after Jenkins left the hospital that he hoped the surrender and court proceedings would solve the mystery surrounding the case.

"Hopefully we can get the truth," Hyman said from his home in Dallas, N.C., adding that he thought his uncle would plead guilty to the charge related to his appearance in propaganda films in the plea bargain.

Hyman, who came to Japan for a week this summer but claims he was blocked by the Japanese government from meeting with his uncle, expressed reservations about the legal counsel Jenkins was getting from the U.S. military.

"I'm not ashamed of what my uncle might have done, because I don't believe he did anything wrong," Hyman said. "I believe the lawyer is giving him the information that Washington wants him to have and that's it."

In U.S. custody, Jenkins -- who was never discharged from the military -- will be put in uniform, given his Army salary and possibly put up in base housing with his family like other soldiers while his case makes its way through the justice system.