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CNN Live At Daybreak

Desperate Deserter, Family's Future Uncertain

Aired December 04, 2002 - 06:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: North Korea and Japan are locked in a public relations battle over the fate of five Japanese who were kidnapped and taken against their will to North Korea back in 1978. And while the five have now returned to Japan, their children all remain behind in North Korea.
And the case of one abductee is even more complicated, because she is married to a U.S. Army deserter, Charles Robert Jenkins.

CNN's Rebecca MacKinnon explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN TOKYO BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): North Korean authorities allowed Japanese journalists to meet the U.S. deserter, Charles Robert Jenkins, at a hospital in Pyongyang. Authorities there claim the 62-year-old Jenkins, who deserted to North Korea in 1965, is hospitalized with fatigue and stress.

Stress, because his Japanese wife, Hitomi Soga, who married him after she was abducted to North Korea in 1978, remains stuck in Japan, trapped in a three-way diplomatic stalemate. Even if North Korean authorities allowed him to come to Japan, Jenkins remains a wanted man in the U.S. as a military deserter, and could face extradition despite Japan's repeated appeals for Washington to pardon him.

HOWARD BAKER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO JAPAN: He is still characterized as a deserter from the U.S. Army. The government will proceed according to the provisions of the law, and how that will finally unfold remains to be seen.

MACKINNON: It has now been a month-and-a-half since Soga left North Korea with four other Japanese abductees on what Japanese and North Korean diplomats had agreed would be just a two-week visit. But now, Japan refuses to return them to North Korea until it agrees to let them settle permanently in Japan with their families. North Korea, for its part, refuses to discuss that idea, insisting Tokyo broke its promise.

At a news conference last Friday, reporters were not allowed to ask Soga what she thinks about the U.S. government's position toward her husband. Organizers claimed the question was too sensitive. But she did say this:

HITOMI SOGA, WIFE OF DESERTER (through translator): I think the most important thing is that my family can live together, wherever it is. MACKINNON (on camera): With no flexibility in Washington, Tokyo or Pyongyang, the family created by bizarre Cold War circumstances could remain separated for a long time to come.

Rebecca MacKinnon, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired December 4, 2002 - 06:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: North Korea and Japan are locked in a public relations battle over the fate of five Japanese who were kidnapped and taken against their will to North Korea back in 1978. And while the five have now returned to Japan, their children all remain behind in North Korea.
And the case of one abductee is even more complicated, because she is married to a U.S. Army deserter, Charles Robert Jenkins.

CNN's Rebecca MacKinnon explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN TOKYO BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): North Korean authorities allowed Japanese journalists to meet the U.S. deserter, Charles Robert Jenkins, at a hospital in Pyongyang. Authorities there claim the 62-year-old Jenkins, who deserted to North Korea in 1965, is hospitalized with fatigue and stress.

Stress, because his Japanese wife, Hitomi Soga, who married him after she was abducted to North Korea in 1978, remains stuck in Japan, trapped in a three-way diplomatic stalemate. Even if North Korean authorities allowed him to come to Japan, Jenkins remains a wanted man in the U.S. as a military deserter, and could face extradition despite Japan's repeated appeals for Washington to pardon him.

HOWARD BAKER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO JAPAN: He is still characterized as a deserter from the U.S. Army. The government will proceed according to the provisions of the law, and how that will finally unfold remains to be seen.

MACKINNON: It has now been a month-and-a-half since Soga left North Korea with four other Japanese abductees on what Japanese and North Korean diplomats had agreed would be just a two-week visit. But now, Japan refuses to return them to North Korea until it agrees to let them settle permanently in Japan with their families. North Korea, for its part, refuses to discuss that idea, insisting Tokyo broke its promise.

At a news conference last Friday, reporters were not allowed to ask Soga what she thinks about the U.S. government's position toward her husband. Organizers claimed the question was too sensitive. But she did say this:

HITOMI SOGA, WIFE OF DESERTER (through translator): I think the most important thing is that my family can live together, wherever it is. MACKINNON (on camera): With no flexibility in Washington, Tokyo or Pyongyang, the family created by bizarre Cold War circumstances could remain separated for a long time to come.

Rebecca MacKinnon, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.