SADO, Niigata Pref. (Kyodo) Ex-U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins, who spent four decades in North Korea and now lives in Japan, said Wednesday his wife, freed Pyongyang abductee Hitomi Soga, only had to coach six men and women, including army officers, in Japanese on three occasions in the North between 1981 and 1982 during her 24-year captivity.
"Me and her, for about three times, went to other houses to teach English and Japanese language for about one week each (time)," Jenkins, 65, told Kyodo News in an interview in Soga's hometown on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture. He added that it is "very possible" that some of the students later became spies.
These were the only times Soga, 46, was made to work since she was abducted to North Korea in 1978, Jenkins reckoned. The couple, who married in the North in 1980, taught five women and one man -- all in their 20s -- at that time.