Sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins pleaded guilty

Sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins has pleaded guilty to deserting the U.S. Army in 1965, saying that he wanted to avoid duty on the &to= english.pravda.ru/diplomatic/2002/09/14/36635.html ' target=_blank>Korean peninsula and Vietnam. The plea was apparently part of a bargain with U.S. military officials to win the frail North Carolina native a lesser sentence. The 64-year-old vanished from his post and lived in North Korea for 39 years. Jenkins also pleaded guilty to aiding the enemy by teaching North Koreans English in the 1980s. He denied that he advocated the overthrow of the United States and pleaded innocent to charges of making disloyal statements. Jenkins turned himself into U.S. military authorities on September eleventh, two months after he left Korea to seek medical treatment in Japan. Japan has been urging the &to= english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/98/396/12668_American.html ' target=_blank>U.S. government to be lenient so Jenkins can live in Japan with his Japanese wife and their two daughters, informs News 14 Carolina. According to Sunday Times, American soldier Charles Jenkins pleaded guilty today to deserting to North Korea in 1965, in the final act of a &to= english.pravda.ru/letters/2002/10/28/38747.html ' target=_blank>Cold War drama that began with his disappearance on a patrol four decades ago. Jenkins, a 64-year-old who gave himself up at this US base near Tokyo in September, pleaded guilty at a court martial to desertion and aiding the enemy, defense counsel Captain James Culp said. The guilty plea had been widely expected as the US military has indicated it will be lenient with Jenkins, who in theory could face the death penalty, as his case has aroused deep sympathy in close US ally Japan. Soga returned to Japan in 2002 and was reunited with Jenkins and her daughters in Indonesia in July after a summit between Japanese Prime Minister &to= english.pravda.ru/politics/2001/10/10/17714.html ' target=_blank>Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. Washington has pressed to try Jenkins, while Tokyo has repeatedly asked for leniency. There were 2,491 US soldiers wanted for desertion listed on the FBI's National Crime Information Center database as of May, with 1,076 new cases added from October 2003 to March this year.

Pravda.ru forum. The place where truth hurts