WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- The United States still wants accused deserter Charles Jenkins and will seek custody of him at an appropriate time, the U.S. State Department said Friday.
"We have informed the Japanese Government that we will seek custody of Sergeant Jenkins at an appropriate time," department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement released Friday. "He faces serious charges, including desertion."
U.S. military doctors are in touch with Japanese doctors treating Jenkins.
Jenkins is accused of deserting U.S. troops along the demilitarized zone in the Korean Peninsula in 1965 and defecting to North Korea. A sergeant at the time of his alleged desertion, Jenkins is considered still on active duty as a member of U.S. armed forces.
Jenkins is married to a Japanese woman, Hitomi Soga, who was kidnapped by North Korea in 1978. Soga returned to Japan along with other Japanese abduction victims in October 2002. The family was reunited in Jakarta last month.
