US soldier who fled to N Korea dies

Tokyo, December 12

A US soldier who deserted to North Korea more than half a century ago, but who was eventually allowed to leave the secretive state, has died in Japan aged 77. One of the Cold War’s strangest dramas began in 1965 when Charles Robert Jenkins, then a 24-year-old army sergeant nicknamed “Scooter” from tiny Rich Square in North Carolina, disappeared one January night while on patrol near the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas.

At an emotional court martial in Japan in 2004, Jenkins who had never gone to high school said he deserted to avoid hazardous duty in South Korea and escape combat in Vietnam. He drank 10 beers, took his men on patrol and told them to wait while he checked the road below. He then walked towards North Korea, holding a rifle with a white t-shirt tied around it. 

In North Korea, he taught English to soldiers and portrayed an evil US spy in a propaganda film. — PTI