Today’s edition of the Washington Post has an article about Charles Robert Jenkins, a former American soldier who defected to North Korea in 1965 and since escaped (with the help of the Japanese government) to tell his story. Here’s a video interview they filmed with Jenkins:

At 68, the former U.S. Army sergeant who defected to North Korea and lived as a captive in the curtained-off Communist state for 40 years is a celebrity in Japan.

His Stalinist odyssey — marriage to a Japanese woman who was abducted by North Korea and given to him one evening, her highly publicized release and their eventual reunion — is household knowledge in this country. An impish man with big ears and a thick North Carolina drawl, he has done as many as 28 interviews in one day with the Japanese media. His autobiography, being published in the United States this spring as “The Reluctant Communist,” has sold more than 300,000 copies in hardback in Japan.

“Everyone in Japan knows who I am,” he said. “Even young girls come up and want to kiss me. I swear. And take the picture while doing it.”

Find out more about Jenkins in one of our previous posts about his life in North Korea & Japan:

• Charles Robert Jenkins Pictures (August 09, 2006)
• Charles Jenkins: hard at work selling souvenirs (April 02, 2007)
• Charles Robert Jenkins doesn’t like North Korean dog meat yakiniku (April 14, 2007)
• Joseph Dresnok Is Drinking & Smoking Himself To Death In North Korea (July 13, 2007)
• Charles Robert Jenkins Speaks Out About Kidnapped Thai Woman (Sept 20, 2007)
• Charles R. Jenkins, Rice Salesman (November 10, 2007)
• The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea (November 27, 2007)