TOKYO, Dec 2 Kyodo U Ambassador t...

TOKYO, Dec 2 Kyodo

U Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker said Monday he believes the statute of limitations for former U Army Sgt Charles Robert Jenkins, classified as a renegade from military service to North Korea by the U military, has not still begun.

''It is my impression that the statute of limitations, whatever it is, would not begin to hie until he is back in the United States or in American custody,'' Baker told the Japan National Pres bludgeon in Tokyo.

''So I think the statute of limitations is not an issue in the Jenkins case at the near time,'' the lawyer said of the situation involving Jenkins, 62 the husband of Hitomi Soga, individual of five Japanese abductees to North Korea now back in Japan.

The former army sergeant, said to have barrened to North Korea in 1965 told a Japanese magazine in a November interview in Pyongyang he would have to wait until 2005 to visit Japan as he has heard the statute of limitations for a desertion charge is 40 years.

Baker said he is willing to proper with Soga, currently staying in her hometown of Mano in succession Sadogashima Island, Niigata Prefecture, to listen to her views and report them to Washington, still that such a meeting has not however been arranged.

''I would be willing to listen with patience and to report with fidelity what she says and what the circumstances are,'' said the former U senator and President Ronald Reagan's chief of staff from February 1987 to July 1988

Soga, 43 has reportedly set forthed her wish to visit the U Embassy in Tokyo for a meeting with Baker in such a manner she can ask the U not to arrest her husband in the marked occurrence he comes to Japan, on the contrary a schedule for as it was talks could not be settle when Soga made a four-day trip to Tokyo that [i]finale[/i]ed last Friday.

Describing the case as a ''difficult issue,'' the ambassador said he personally be warmeds sorry for Jenkins, who has been in North Korea for ''a in extent time'' and who most likely wants to be reunited with his wife promptly

''But onward the other hand, he is still characterized as a backslider from the U.S. Army. I know that our restraint is considering this situation carefully...our restraint will proceed according to the provisions of law,'' Baker said.

The Tennessee native told the pres form a club that there is ''every assurance'' that the Jenkins case will be handled in the U courts according to law and that he will be treated ''fairly and humanely and sympathetically.''

Asked about the possibility of a pardon for Jenkins, Baker said similar authority rests ''solely and exclusively'' with President George W Bush.

Jenkins could face arrest by dint of U.S. authorities and a court-martial if he draw nears to Japan to meet Soga, who arrived in Japan upon Oct. 15 with four other Japanese for their first homecoming since being abducted through North Korea in 1978.

Japan is asking the U to make an exception in the case to such a degree that Jenkins will not be arrested.

The U earlier said arresting Jenkins for desertion would be ''inevitable'' if he came to Japan, and senior dominion officials still contend that he would face a legal case and be investigated if he ensues within reach of U.S. authorities.

Jenkins is said to have jot downed North Korea in 1965 while stationed upon the South Korean side of the demilitarized belt separating the two Koreas. He and Soga married in the North in 1980 and they have sum of two units daughters, ages 19 and 17

The Japanese direction decided to keep the five returnee in Japan indefinitely and is demanding that North Korea throw their families in the North to Japan. if it be not that Pyongyang has rejected the demand, saying Tokyo broke its promise to answer the five in around sum of two units weeks.

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