July 9, 2006

Deserter Recalls N. Korean Hell

Charles Jenkins Shares His Story Of A Hard Life Under Abusive Regime

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By Daniel Schorn

Play CBS Video Video Pelley On Jenkins
Scott Pelley talked about interviewing Sgt. Charles Jenkins, who defected to North Korea. The Sgt. was endured mind control from the North Korean military and was even given an Japanese bride.

Video 39 Years, 6 Months, 4 Days
Former U.S. Army Sgt. Charles Jenkins shares his story of defecting from the military in 1965 and living for almost four decades before escaping. Scott Pelley reports.

Charles Robert Jenkins deserted from the U.S. Army in 1965, fleeing to North Korea. He spent nearly four decades in the communist country. (CBS)

Fast Facts North Korea
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Interactive The Divided Koreas
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(CBS)
In September 2004, Sgt. Jenkins reported for duty at a U.S. base in Japan. It appears no deserter has ever come back after being gone so long.

Jenkins said it felt good to be in uniform again after 40 years.

"Felt good? Why so?" Pelley asked.

"I correct my mistake. I come back," Jenkins said. "And Mika and Brinda, they had never seen me, they never saw me in uniform and I didn't think they ever would."

He pled guilty to desertion and aiding the enemy and was released from the brig after 25 days. "I've paid my debt to society. I don't expect people to run up to me and hug me and kiss me. I don't want them to," said Jenkins.

And Jenkins does not think of himself as a traitor. "If I was a traitor, I wouldn't have come back."

Pelley asked Jenkins what amazed him the most about the world since he left it in 1965.

He had never laid a hand on a computer, much less been on the Internet. He told 60 Minutes he was surprised there were so many women in the Army, that there were black policemen, and, as he put it, you can’t smoke anywhere anymore.

Jenkins says he had been told about the historic landing of men of the moon. "I was told that by the Koreans, one of the officers. They wouldn't say what country, but they said, 'Una handa la'… some country landed on the moon."

Today, Jenkins has landed on Sado Island, Japan, not far from the spot where his wife was kidnapped. But before he came to the family farm, he had to know that Hitomi’s love flowed from freedom, not slavery.

Jenkins volunteered to dissolve the marriage. “I told her, ‘In North Korea, it's one thing. This is Japan. You're still young. If you wish for me to go, I'll go.’ "

But Hitomi said no.

After Hitomi, there was just one other woman in the world he needed to see: his mother. When he left for duty in South Korea, he told her he would be back in a year.

Last summer, Jenkins visited North Carolina where, at the age of 91, his mother, Pattie Casper, had lived long enough to see her son come home.

"Yeah, I love you. … I didn’t think you would ever get here," his mother said during the reunion.

"It was hard, very difficult, very hard," Jenkins tearfully replied.