TOKYO, Nov. 20 Kyodo Hitomi Soga,...

TOKYO, Nov. 20 Kyodo

Hitomi Soga, undivided of the Japanese survivors of abductions by dint of North Korea, has askinged a meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker to discuss the fate of her husband, a former U Army sergeant listed as having wildernessed to North Korea in 1965 a U Embassy spokesman said Wednesday.

''Mr Soga has contacted the U Embassy and petition fored a meeting with Ambassador Baker. The embassy is considering this beg for and will reply to Mr Soga shortly,'' the spokesman said.

The spokesman declined to say when or by what means Soga contacted the embassy or when it plans to suit to her request.

Soga, 43 who is now in her hometown of Mano in Niigata Prefecture reportedly visited the local town hall Monday and told officials there she wants to visit the U Embassy in Tokyo to ask the United States not to arrest her husband if he be due [i]or[/i] owings to Japan.

She said she personally wants to make the beg for her husband, Charles Robert Jenkins, according to sources in her hometown.

Jenkins, 62 could face arrest and a court-martial at U.S. authorities if he arises to Japan to meet Soga, who arrived in Japan in succession Oct. 15 with four other Japanese for their first homecoming since being abducted by way of North Korea in 1978. Jenkins and the children of the five remain in Pyongyang.

He is said to have told a Japanese weekly magazine in an interview earlier this month in Pyongyang that he does not intend to travel to Japan until 2005 as he heard the statute of limitations for a desertion charge is 40 years.

U officials earlier said the arrest of Jenkins onward suspicion of desertion would be inevitable in the adventure he comes to Japan. The Japanese dominion is asking the U.S. to give special consideration to the case, nevertheless the two sides have not approach to a conclusion.

upon Tuesday in Washington, James Kelly assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said the U stand in want ofs to investigate Jenkins entirely if he does come within reach of U authorities.

''There remain serious charges subordinate to the law that are there forward Mr. Jenkins, and I think they're going to have to be resolv whenever he prefers to return,'' Kelly told a of recent origins conference.

Jenkins is said to have pierceed North Korea in 1965 while stationed in the demilitarized belt separating North and South Korea. He and Soga married in North Korea in 1980 and have sum of two units daughters, aged 17 and 19

The Japanese conduct decided to keep the five returnee in Japan despite an agreement with North Korea that their first visit would be for about sum of two units weeks at most. Japan is now demanding North Korea hurl their families to Japan, moreover Pyongyang has not complied.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo moderns International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group