40-Year GI Fugitive To Surrender

Accused U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins left his Tokyo hospital for a U.S. military base Saturday to surrender to American military authorities nearly 40 years after he allegedly defected to North Korea.

Jenkins, who has been hospitalized since arriving in Japan in July, was expected to turn himself in at the U.S. Army's Camp Zama just south of Tokyo.

As he left, Jenkins was accompanied by his Japanese wife and their two daughters. They boarded a beige minivan together before being driven out of hospital grounds.

Jenkins, who is charged with deserting his Army unit in 1965 along the Demilitiarized Zone and defecting to the North, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

Television crews and other media were gathering early Saturday at the hospital and the base in anticipation of Jenkins' surrender.

"I expect we have a lot more to face in the days to come," said Jenkins' wife, Hitomi Soga, as she left a Tokyo hotel earlier that morning.

"But we hope that the four of us can live together as soon as possible," she said.

Jenkins' fate has become the focus of intense concern in Japan because he met Soga after she was abducted and taken to the North by spies in 1978.

She and four other Japanese abductees were released two years ago and came home to a hero's welcome.

Jenkins and the couple's two daughters stayed behind but arrived in Japan in July.

The Japanese government has argued for leniency so Jenkins can live in Japan with Soga, whose plight has inspired widespread sympathy here.

Jenkins, 64, is accused of abandoning his Army unit in 1965 along the Demilitarized Zone and defecting to communist North Korea. He is charged with desertion, aiding the enemy and urging other soldiers to be disloyal.

He faces a maximum of life in prison if convicted.

He has met several times with a U.S. Army attorney, and expectations are high that he will attempt to strike a plea bargain with the military to reduce his sentence.