Yahoo news / AP has a report that the US soldier who deserted to N Korea, where met and married a kidnapped Japanese woman, and who got out of N Korea earlier this year has pleaded guilty to desertion and got 30 days in the clink.
CAMP ZAMA, Japan - Sgt. Charles Robert Jenkins pleaded guilty Wednesday to deserting the U.S. Army in 1965 and aiding the enemy, saying that he wanted to avoid hazardous duty on the Korean peninsula and Vietnam.
Jenkins was given a 30-day jail sentence, but the judge recommended that it be suspended. The suspension was to be ruled on by military authorities soon.
The plea was apparently part of a bargain with U.S. military officials to win the frail 64-year-old a lesser sentence. The North Carolina native vanished from his post and lived in North Korea (news - web sites) for 39 years before coming to Japan this year.
"I walked away from my squad ... for the purpose of going to North Korea," Jenkins told the court, adding that had planned this desertion for 10 days and had tied a white tee-shirt to his rifle to signal his surrender.
Watch for this story to get buried under all the election stories ...
In fact come to think of it there is something fishy about a lot of the timing to this story. He showed up to Camp Zama to turn himself in on September 11 and he gets his sentence on US election day. Both of which are days when major news organizations have had a lot of other things to discuss.
Still IMO there isn't much point in complaining about any leniancy - put it down to diplomacy - Japan wants him free - and anyway he seems to have spent about 20-30 years regretting his action and discovering that N Korea is not as easy to leave as it is to enter.