The Reluctant Communist

Charles Robert Jenkins was born in Rich Square, North Carolina on February 18, 1940. He became an Army sergeant. While patrolling the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea in 1965 while drunk, he walked into the North Korea to avoid facing combat duty in Vietnam. He spent years held with other American defectors, forced to read the works of North Korean leaders and suffering from hunger and beatings. He taught English to North Korean military cadets and appeared in propaganda leaflets and films.

In 1972, he was given North Korean citizenship. In 1980, he married Hitomi Soga, a Japanese woman who had been kidnapped by North Korean agents as part of an effort to teach Japanese language and culture to spies. Soga was allowed to return to Japan in 2002 after a visit by the Japanese prime minister. Jenkins and their two daughters were allowed to leave in 2004 to rejoin Soga.

Once he was in Japan, Jenkins was court-martialed. He pleaded guilty to desertion and aiding the enemy. He was demoted to private, stripped of back pay and benefits, and given a 30-day jail sentence along with a dishonorable discharge. After his release, he worked as a greeter at a tourist attraction. His book, The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea written with Jim Frederick, was published in 2008. He died on December 11, 2017 at the age of 77.

030