The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea | 
 enlarge | Authors: Charles Robert Jenkins, Jim Frederick
Publisher: University of California Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 48987
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 232
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.7 x 0.9
ISBN: 0520253337
Dewey Decimal Number: 355.1334
EAN: 9780520253339
ASIN: 0520253337
Publication Date: March 25, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In January of 1965, twenty-four-year-old U.S. Army sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins abandoned his post in South Korea, walked across the DMZ, and surrendered to communist North Korean soldiers standing sentry along the world's most heavily militarized border. He believed his action would get him back to the States and a short jail sentence. Instead he found himself in another sort of prison, where for forty years he suffered under one of the most brutal and repressive regimes the world has known. This fast-paced, harrowing tale, told plainly and simply by Jenkins (with journalist Jim Frederick), takes the reader behind the North Korean curtain and reveals the inner workings of its isolated society while offering a powerful testament to the human spirit.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 A fascinating look at North Korean life! September 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Jenkins produces a fascinating glimpse into the day-to-day workings of the North Korean government, especially in terms of the lives of "average" citizens. He writes in an engaging, down-to-earth style that makes for fast reading while still answering all of the questions that the average reader would want to know about why an American soldier would cross the DMZ one day and what his life would be like as a result. It's an engrossing story that's very much worth your time.
 A look through the keyhole of a prison September 2, 2008
Charles Robert Jenkins is a man who is modestly interesting in spite of himself, although his is not a very appealing personality. He grows up in an impoverished family in North Carolina. Poorly educated, he joins the Army as a teenager and ultimately defects to North Korea, for reasons which, even now, he seems unable to really articulate. Unable to leave, he makes a kind of life for himself, a life which is a kind of testimony to the rigors of existence in North Korea. I say "kind of," since Jenkins and the other American deserters to not suffer nearly as much as ordinary North Koreans, especially during the "Arduous March" starvation period of the early nineties. An unreflective man, prone to drink, buffeted by events, he emerges from North Korea only because he is married to a Japanese abductee. Today, he evidently lives happily in his wife's hometown in Japan. You won't learn much about North Korean society from this slender book; Jenkins is not much of an observer. Or perhaps he is holding back. It is impossible to tell. In any case, his account of the narrow life he led adds only a small bit of detail to what's known about this closed society.
Lives up to Billing - Should be a Movie August 27, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is an excellent book for people interested in Americans' perceptions of North Korea. This would make for an excellent movie.
 He made his choice July 28, 2008
0 out of 9 found this review helpful
Boo hoo. Jenkins wants everyone to think he was some innocent victim. He made the decision to switch to the other side, no one pushed him into doing it. Once he got to North Korea he found out their utopian propaganda was all Bravo Sierra. If he hadn't been so gullible in the first place he wouldn't have to be making excuses now. He may not have enjoyed rock star treatment while he was their "guest", but you can be certain his quality of life was much better than the average native-born citizen. He was a useful propaganda tool, starring in NK movies as the "Evil American". Maybe not treason, but close to it. I haven't read this book (and won't), but I served on the DMZ so I'd say that qualifies me to give my "review".
I'm glad he and his family are finally out of North Korea July 19, 2008
In this fascinating and quick-paced book, Jenkins answers questions that have nagged many people for 39 years. Why did he cross over to North Korea? Did he work against US interests while in North Korea (including being an interpreter in the capture of the USS Pueblo)? Did he want to be that kind of a communist? Did he want to leave North Korea?
Along the way to learning the answers to the questions above, the reader gets a chilling glimpse inside the closed-off country that proves to be at least as backwards and brutal as we understand it to be. We learn about how he met Hitomi Soga, his wife, and the life they endured with their two daughters. Contrary to the accusations made by many scorned Americans, he wasn't living in the lap of luxury as a treasured guest of Kim Il-sung. He had it better than most North Koreans did, but it was far from a life any of us would want. These were the consequences suffered by a man of quite limited aptitude (why did the Army have somebody like him on the DMZ) who, by his own admission, made a cowardly decision for the wrong reasons.
I believe the Army's decision to give him a light one-month sentence in exchange for whatever information he had was appropriate. Jenkins says he was treated well, and his wife and daughters were even given dependent privileges until his discharge. I was happy to see the Army resolve this situation so honorably. Jenkins returned to the US to visit his family and now lives in his wife's hometown in Japan. Many aspects of his terrible mistake will always be with him, but I'm glad he has the opportunity to move on.
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