 | The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea Subjects: Jenkins Charles Robert 1940–; Korean War 1950–1953 -- Personal narratives American; Korean War 1950–1953 -- Desertions -- United States; Military deserters -- United States -- Biography; Americans -- Korea (North) -- Biography; Defectors -- Korea (No; In January of 1965, twenty-four-year-old U.S. Army sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins abandoned his post in South Korea, walked across the DMZ, and surrendered to communist North Korean soldiers standing sentry along the world's most heavily militarized border. He believed his action would get him back to the States and a short jail sentence. Instead he found himself in another sort of prison, where for forty years he suffered under one of the most brutal and repressive regimes the world has known. This fast-paced, harrowing tale, told plainly and simply by Jenkins (with journalist Jim Frederick), takes the reader behind the North Korean curtain and reveals the inner workings of its isolated society while offering a powerful testament to the human spirit. Charles Robert Jenkins was born in Rich Square, North Carolina on February 18, 1940. He became an Army sergeant. While patrolling the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea in 1965 while drunk, he walked into the North Korea to avoid facing combat duty in Vietnam. He spent years held with other American defectors, forced to read the works of North Korean leaders and suffering from hunger and beatings. He taught English to North Korean military cadets and appeared in propaganda leaflets and films. In 1972, he was given North Korean citizenship. In 1980, he married Hitomi Soga, a Japanese woman who had been kidnapped by North Korean agents as part of an effort to teach Japanese language and culture to spies. Soga was allowed to return to Japan in 2002 after a visit by the Japanese prime minister. Jenkins and their two daughters were allowed to leave in 2004 to rejoin Soga. Once he was in Japan, Jenkins was court-martialed. He pleaded guilty to desertion and aiding the enemy. He was demoted to private, stripped of back pay and benefits, and given a 30-day jail sentence along with a dishonorable discharge. After his release, he worked as a greeter at a tourist attraction. His book, The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea written with Jim Frederick, was published in 2008. He died on December 11, 2017 at the age of 77. (Bowker Author Biography) |
