http://www.wral.com/news/5135653/detail.html?rss=ral&psp=news
Army Deserter Recalls Sex Orders, Abuse After Fleeing To NKorea
POSTED: 10:22 pm EDT October 20, 2005
UPDATED: 10:22 pm EDT October 20, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Charles Jenkins, who deserted his U.S. Army unit and
fled to North Korea in 1965, says his communist keepers abused him and
controlled every aspect of his life, down to telling him how often to
have sex.
"It was the worst mistake anyone ever made," he said. "In words, I
cannot express the feelings I have towards North Korea, the harassment
I got. The hard life."
In an interview to be broadcast Sunday on "60 Minutes," the native of
Rich Square, N.C., said he was given no painkillers when a tattoo on
his forearm that read "U.S. Army" was cut off with a scalpel and
scissors.
"They told me the anesthetic was for the battlefield," Jenkins said.
"It was hell."
Jenkins was a 24-year-old sergeant when he crossed the border into to
North Korea. He stayed for 39 years, appearing in propaganda films and
teaching English.
In 1980, he married a Japanese citizen, Hitomi Soga, who had been
kidnapped and taken to North Korea two years earlier to train spies in
Japanese language and culture. She was released in 2002 and Jenkins
followed two years later, surrendering to U.S. authorities and serving
a month in jail for desertion.
They now live in Japan.
Jenkins told "60 Minutes" that his government handlers assigned him a
Korean woman with whom he was supposed to have sex twice a month, and
they beat him severely when he balked.
Later, when he met his wife, the only thing they initially had in
common was a shared hatred of North Korea. After they were married,
Jenkins said, the emotion inspired them to tell each other good night
in their respective native languages.
Jenkins spoke Japanese to his wife to "remind her that she's still
Japanese, that she's not Korean. She's not obligated to Korea. She is
Japanese ... and she spoke to me in English _ every night," he said.
"Regardless of how hard things got, we always stuck as one."
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