Charles R. Jenkins, Rice Salesman

Charles Robert Jenkins, the American soldier who nearly 40 years in North Korea after defecting from his Army unit in 1965, is back in the news. His latest news appearance is not about working at a gift shop or talking about his hate for North Korean dog meat, but rather his love for Niigata Prefecture’s rice. Mainichi has the story:

The 67-year-old Jenkins, who served a month in jail after arriving in Japan from North Korea in 2004, promoted rice from Japan’s Sado island, said Sado city spokesman Takashi Nakahara.

Sado, where Jenkins has been living for three years, is trying to promote local products ahead of the release of rare ibises next autumn from a conservation center on the island.

“When you use chemical fertilizers, you can’t get good rice and ibises can’t live,” Jenkins told Japan’s Kyodo News agency. “I want to spend my whole life on Sado where I can eat tasty rice.”

Advertising is not new to Jenkins. While he was held in North Korea for 39 years, he played devilish Americans in anti-U.S. propaganda films for the communist regime in Pyongyang.

Keigo Honma, who accompanied Jenkins as his interpreter on the promotion tour, said Jenkins was an effective ad man.

“People have been coming up to him to shake his hand and have their picture taken with him,” Honma said.

Here are a couple videos of Jenkins selling rice and shaking hands (the second video also mentions the Black Lab Jenkins and his wife recently received as a gift from friends):