JAPAN: In a step towards resolving a delicate US-Japan diplomatic stand-off, a US military lawyer arrived in Japan yesterday to begin advising an American soldier accused of deserting to North Korea almost 40 years ago.
Mr Charles Robert Jenkins (64), an army sergeant who Washington says defected in 1965, was brought to Japan for medical care last month with his Japanese wife, Ms Hitomi Soga, and their two daughters after the family was reunited in Jakarta on July 9th.
Washington has said it has the right to take Mr Jenkins into custody so he can face a court martial for desertion, but has put off doing so while he remains in hospital.
Mr Jenkins's fate is a sensitive issue for Washington and Tokyo, which wants him to be able to live in Japan with his family.
Mr Jenkins's wife was abducted by North Korean agents and kept there for decades, but was allowed to return to Japan with other abductees nearly two years ago.
Her plight has attracted widespread public sympathy in Japan.
Speculation has mounted that a plea bargain might be the most realistic solution and the US military lawyer was expected to explain court-martial and plea-bargaining procedures in an initial meeting with Mr Jenkins at the Tokyo hospital yesterday.
Several more meetings were expected during his stay.
A private US lawyer hired by Mr Jenkins's American relatives to seek a pardon for the former GI agreed that a plea bargain seemed likely.
"I think this will be resolved through some sort of plea at a court martial and hope it can be worked out with a plea and no confinement," Mr James B. Craven III, a retired US naval reserve officer and civilian lawyer, said. "I don't think our government wants to lock him up."
Mr Craven, who said he wanted to co- operate with the US military counsel on the case, said it might be unrealistic to expect a US presidential pardon, "certainly before the election".
President Bush is thought to be reluctant to give Mr Jenkins special treatment for fear of sending the wrong message while US troops are fighting in Iraq and of offending voters before the November presidential election.
Japan's government spokesman, Mr Hiroyuki Hosoda, declined to comment on the specifics of any meeting between Mr Jenkins and the US military lawyer.
"These are delicate discussions of whether he will be charged with a crime or not and it is entirely a personal and private matter," Mr Hosoda told a news conference, adding that neither US nor Japanese officials would be at the meeting.
Another American lawyer with experience defending US military personnel in Japan said it was too early to predict whether Mr Jenkins would admit guilt and seek a plea bargain.
"There is a lot more unknown than known and it depends on the unknowns," a Japan-based civilian lawyer, Ms Annette Eddie-Callagain, said. She added that any such decision would be made only after a defence lawyer was appointed.
Doctors at Mr Jenkins's Tokyo hospital said this week he did not require urgent treatment but that there were still concerns about the effect on his health of the stress he was suffering.
Washington says Mr Jenkins slipped into North Korea during a border patrol in January 1965.
He appeared in anti-US propaganda films and had not left North Korea until July.
His American relatives say there is no proof Mr Jenkins deserted and insist he was kidnapped and brainwashed by North Korea. - (Reuters)