Life as an American in North Korea

In January, 1965, Jenkins was a U.S. Army sergeant stationed in South Korea. Sure that he was about to be sent to Vietnam, he drank ten beers, abandoned his patrol, and crossed into North Korea. He spent the next four decades in a country that had become “a giant, demented prison,” until the Japanese government secured his release, along with that of his Japanese wife, who had been abducted by the North Koreans. Jenkins’s book is oddly compelling. The blank ordinariness of his character brings out the moral and physical ugliness of life in North Korea, where soldiers steal and beg for food; a dog digs up a fresh mass grave (and the next day all the dogs in the neighborhood are shot); and Jenkins awakens to the bleak, deadening realization that his two daughters are being groomed as spies. “I would always tell them, ‘we are not in the real world. This is not the real world,’” Jenkins writes of his daughters. “But they didn’t believe me.” -The New Yorker

Back in November, I posted about an upcoming book by Charles Robert Jenkins, an American who defected to North Korea in the 1960′s, and ended up escaping to Japan 40 years later. I finally got around to ordering and reading Jenkins’ autobiography last month, and below is a compact review in bullet point format, together some thoughts on the overall tone of the book.

• No other American has lived for such a long period of time in North Korea and escaped to write a tell-all autobiography. Jenkins’ story is unique and fascinating, and thanks to the help of Time Magazine journalist Jim Frederick, it’s even well-written.
• At under 200 pages, this book is a pretty quick read. It probably could have been better if it had been lengthened to include more details, but I understand the need to make it smoother and more readable for a general audience.
• If you buy this book, don’t skip the 25-page introduction by Jim Frederick. In addition to providing good background information to the story, he shares some odd facts about Jenkins. (Example: Jenkins became a fan of Michale Jackson after listening to a tape that had been smuggled into North Korea, and he now avidly follows news about the pop star.)
• Jenkins managed to carry a photo album with him when he left North Korea, and some of the photos are included in an insert. The pictures are very interesting, but I was quite disappointed to find that the American publisher of this book, had included far fewer photographs than can be found in the Japanese version of the book.

As one might expect from a book written by a man who deserted to an enemy country, Jenkins spends a lot of the book defending himself and offering thanks to those who helped him get out of North Korea. He admits that his decision to desert the U.S. military and cross the DMZ as a stupid one, and expresses remorse at the thought of leaving his squad behind on patrol duty. In describing his work as an English instructor for the North Korean military, he claims that he made no effort to teach proper English and probably ended up harming the English ability of the officers he taught — a claim that doesn’t seem too outlandish if you’ve ever heard Jenkins speak English. He expresses gratitude towards Prime Minister Koizumi and the other Japanese government officials that helped his family relocate to Japan, and he has strong words of praise towards the Army lawyer that acted as his public defender during his court-martial. Although some Americans had said he deserved to be shot for treason, Jenkins feels that the 30-day prison sentence he received was fair, considering the 40 years he spent as a virtual prisoner inside North Korea.

Through my previous experiences reading about him in Time Magazine, seeing him on numerous Japanese television shows, and even watching a Japanese made-for-TV movie based on the book, I knew quite a bit about Jenkins. However, I found that the movie had left out a lot of interesting stories, particularly those relating to Jenkins’ release from North Korea and his court-martial at Camp Zama. I felt that the book was worth the time and money spend on it, and I’d recommend it to readers interested in finding out about life inside the world’s most reclusive and weird country.

Jenkins’ book is available on Amazon.com. Those interested should also check out Crossing the Line, a documentary about one of the other Americans who defected to North Korea.