The nephew of a U.S. soldier who allegedly deserted to North Korea nearly 40 years ago claims the U.S. Army — unable to provide key documents — is covering up his uncle’s abduction.
After asking for his uncle’s official Army records, James Hyman said a package arrived about two weeks ago containing a jumble of military paperwork.
Not included in that mix, however, were four documents the Army said indicate Hyman’s uncle, Sgt. Charles Robert Jenkins, is a deserter.
“It proves” those documents “never existed,” Hyman said in a telephone interview from Dallas, N.C.
“It’s a cover-up, because something went wrong.”
Jenkins is an accused Army deserter now living in North Korea. Army officials say Jenkins, 62, of Rich Square, N.C., defected to the North on Jan. 5, 1965, while leading a four-man patrol near the Demilitarized Zone. He was 24.
His name entered the spotlight in 2002 when a group of North-abducted Japanese citizens returned to Japan. Among them was Hitomi Soga, Jenkins’ wife.
Hyman said he asked the Army for access to his uncle’s military records in hopes of resolving whether, as the Army contends, Jenkins actually defected.
Buttressing the Army’s contention, the service says, are a letter and notes Jenkins left behind.
A Jan. 19, 1965, United Press International story published in Stars and Stripes cited 8th Army officials in South Korea as saying a letter found in his barracks was written by Jenkins to his mother, Pattie Casper, now 90 and in frail health in Roanoke Rapids, N.C.
It read: “I am sorry for the trouble I will cause you. I know what I have to do I am going to North Korea. I hope Dan [Jenkins’ stepfather] gets out of the hospital. Tell family I love them very much. Love, Charles.”
The UPI story quoted Army officials as saying Jenkins “has some indebtedness.” Little more was reported.
“We have no proof he defected. We took the word of North Korea,” Hyman said. “We still believe that Robert may have been captured by the North Koreans.”
Several days after Jenkins disappeared, North Korean authorities announced over loudspeakers aimed at South Korea that he defected.
Jenkins surfaced in 1996 when the Defense POW/MIA Missing Personnel office at the Pentagon obtained and analyzed “Nameless Heroes, Chapter 20,” a North Korean propaganda videotape in which he played a role.
Hyman steadfastly has maintained his uncle didn’t defect. “He loved his country and was proud to wear the uniform,” the nephew said.
That pile of paperwork he recently received has yielded no fresh clues.
“Like other pieces of documentation they have sent me, a lot of names have been blacked out,” he said. “There’s really no one we can talk to corroborate anything.”
Nowhere, Hyman said, was there any reference to the supposed “money problems” or other difficulties.
He said he’d hoped to receive copies of Jenkins’ letter to his mother, and the other three notes, so the handwriting could be analyzed.
“The Army has always told us they could not locate the letter and notes,” said Hyman’s wife, Shir-Lee.
A spokesman said the Army withheld the letter and trio of notes because Jenkins is listed as a deserter on the Army’s personnel rolls and still potentially could face charges.
“If Sgt. Jenkins were to come under U.S. control and a trial were to take place, the letter and notes could be used as evidence,” said Maj. Steve Stover at the Pentagon. “Because court-martial charges sworn against Sgt. Jenkins in 1996 remain pending, it would be inappropriate to comment further on status of evidence related to this case.”
Stover said a copy of her son’s letter was provided to Casper in 1965.
“This is the letter that the media have reported the family as saying — that Robert [Sgt. Jenkins] would never have signed his departure note with ‘Charles,’” Stover said.
Jenkins is a North Korean citizen now, but Defense Department officials maintain the United States still has jurisdiction over him. The statute of limitations affecting him has been “tolled,” or put on hold during his unauthorized absence, Army officials said.
Tolling an offense for potential prosecution is contained in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, said an Okinawa attorney who has defended military members.
“As long as he’s away, it’s an ongoing type of thing; it’s in a continuing status,” said Annette Eddie-Callagain, who has a law practice on the island. “If they bring him back, the military can yank him and take him to court.”
Stover said if Jenkins were to surrender to U.S. armed forces, or to a U.S. Embassy or consulate, he would be returned to duty with the Army.
“He would have an attorney appointed to assist him, at no cost, in addressing any pending charges,” he added. “He would be restored to the pay grade of E-5 and receive all of the rights, privileges and benefits accorded to members of the armed forces.”
The sensitive issue of a pardon for Jenkins has come up from time to time from the Japanese government, and from Jenkins’ wife.
Earlier this month, Soga met in Tokyo with U.S. Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker asking for assistance with a pardon so her husband and daughters could join her in Japan. Baker promised only to pass that request to Washington.
Hyman called the accountability of the letter and notes Jenkins purportedly wrote as “glaring” in their absence.
“We find it odd that the most damning evidence against our uncle is nowhere to be found,” he added.
He said the family has established a Web site where persons with any information about his uncle can be posted to a forum. The address is: http://charlesrobertjenkins.org
