TOKYO, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. Army defector Charles Jenkins said he was pressured in North Korea to refuse the Japanese prime minister's invitation to go to Japan with his family.
In an interview with the Far Eastern Economic Review, Jenkins, who is accused of defecting to North Korea in 1965, revealed that he had sought asylum at the Soviet Embassy in North Korea in 1966 but was turned away.
When Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met with Jenkins in May during his second trip to Pyongyang, Koizumi showed him a note signed by Kim Jong Il permitting Jenkins and his daughters to leave North Korea.
Prior to this meeting, however, Jenkins said several North Korean officials had warned him not to leave. He said he knew the room was bugged during his discussions with Koizumi, so he felt he had to decline the offer, the magazine quoted him as saying.
Jenkins' Japanese wife, Hitomi Soga, had earlier returned to Japan alone. When he agreed to take his two daughters to meet her in Indonesia, North Korea reportedly expected him to convince her to return to Pyongyang. Instead, the family flew to Tokyo, where the 64-year-old Jenkins remains hospitalized.
He has said when he has recovered his health he will turn himself in to the U.S. Army to face charges of desertion.
