North Korea has a duty to respond to people's suffering.

The sentence handed down to Charles Jenkins by a U.S. military court for deserting to North Korea in 1965 was rather lenient. Jenkins, husband of repatriated abductee Hitomi Soga, was sentenced to 30 days of confinement and given a dishonorable discharge by the court-martial at Camp Zama in Kanagawa Prefecture. He is now confined to a U.S. military facility at the Yokosuka Naval Base.

Considering the gravity of the charges against him, the sentence could have been much tougher. A month from now at the latest, the Soga family will be reunited and able to get on with their lives. We are truly happy for them.

Jenkins willfully deserted, while his wife was forcefully abducted from her country. The following is what Soga testified at the court-martial about their life together in North Korea.

Two years after she was snatched, Soga met Jenkins to learn English from him. A supervising instructor recommended they get married, and they tied the knot 38 days after that first meeting.

Soga talked about the harshness of the Korean winter with frequent power blackouts, the small amounts of rice and flour distributed, and the total lack of freedom. Despite these bleak conditions, her husband adored his wife and their two children.

``Now I only wish our family's small happiness will grow much bigger,'' Soga said.

Jenkins defected to North Korea in 1965 while on patrol near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas.

In his testimony, Jenkins said he drank beer before going on duty because the night patrols scared him. He said he deserted the U.S. Army because he feared being sent to Vietnam.

He was hoping to seek asylum in the Soviet Union after entering North Korea with the intention of eventually returning to the United States. In all likelihood, he felt he had made a juvenile mistake.

His sentence apparently was determined in pretrial negotiations on a plea bargain. The U.S. government must have given special consideration to the case bearing in mind Japanese public sentiment toward the abduction issue.

In addition, the presiding colonel at the court-martial recommended that the U.S. Army commander in Japan suspend the term of confinement and allowed Soga to deliver her 35-minute testimony without interruption.

When Jenkins is released, the family very likely will live in the city of Sado in Niigata Prefecture. The couple's two daughters studied English at a university in Pyongyang. We hope they will be able to continue their studies in a secure family situation.

Now, all five Japanese repatriated abductees will be living with spouses and children.

Yet, almost no progress has been made on North Korea's pledge to re-examine 10 or more cases of dead or missing Japanese. Soga's mother is among them.

As for Megumi Yokota, a junior high school student when she was kidnapped on her way home from school, North Korea claims she died. However, it has been revealed that her death certificate was fabricated.

There have been several instances of North Korean defectors carrying photographs of people who bear a striking resemblance to Japanese who disappeared in the 1960s and 1970s.

A third round of working-level talks between Japan and North Korea on the abduction issue will get under way in Pyongyang on Tuesday. North Korea must earnestly conduct research on the fates of those who were abducted and release all the information it has to Japan.

North Korea has a duty to respond to the suffering of people who were torn from their daily lives.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 6(IHT/Asahi: November 8,2004)