TOKYO, June 18 (UPI) -- Charles Jenkins, the U.S. soldier who defected to North Korea in 1965, is to be reunited with his Japanese wife in Indonesia.
The Japanese government is finalizing plans for the reunion of repatriated abductee Hitomi Soga, 45, with her husband and two daughters on the island of Bali, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Friday.
Jenkins and his daughters, Mika and Belinda, remained in North Korea when Soga was repatriated in October 2002 with other Japanese victims of North Korean abductions.
To prevent the U.S. government from court-martialing Jenkins for desertion, Japan had been seeking a country for the reunion that does not have an extradition treaty or a status of forces agreement with the United States.
Soga rejected Beijing as the venue, as suggested in a meeting last month between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Jakarta has no extradition treaty or status of forces agreement with Washington, but it does have diplomatic relations with North Korea, making it easier to obtain North Korean approval of the plan.
