Hitomi Soga

Japan and North Korea had agreed to set the reunion in Indonesia when Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and her North Korean counterpart Paek Nam Sun met July 1 on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum in Jakarta.

The Indonesian government offered three possible sites for the reunion -- the resort island of Bali, the cultural city of Yogyakarta, central Java, and the hill town of Bogor, western Java.

But Tokyo believes Jakarta is most suitable in terms of security and living conditions to meet Soga's request for a long reunion, the sources said.

Since the Japanese Embassy in Indonesia is located in Jakarta, it also is the best site in terms of logistics and coordination.

Tokyo had hoped that Soga's husband, Charles Robert Jenkins, 64, and daughters Mika, 21, and Belinda, 18, would join her in Japan, but Jenkins, who allegedly deserted his U.S. Army unit in 1965 and defected to North Korea, refused to come to Japan out of fear he might be extradited to the United States to face desertion charges. Indonesia has no extradition treaty with the United States.

The Japan Times Weekly: July 10, 2004
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