I never saw that in MASH

Another clue about life in North Korea has emerged. In what will no doubt make a fasincating telemovie, Charles Jenkins was an American GI who.... ah bugger it, here's CNN to tell you the bits you need to know:

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- A former U.S. soldier who Washington says deserted to North Korea in 1965 has been reunited with the Japanese woman he met and married after she was abducted to the reclusive Stalinist state.


It's a cute yarn, and one does just a bit to challenge the impression of North Korea as opaque and impregnable. Jenkins and Hitomi Soga married in DPRK after Soga was taken captive while shopping in Japan in 1978 and have lived most of their adult lives there. Both have emerged happy and healthy, with two children, and seem to be in fear more of an American military court than the wrath of the North Korean government. Just what someone who grew up surrounded by muddled talk of the wonders of "Juche" and Kim il-Sung will make of the outside world is tough to fathom.

Why would anyone want to leave this smiling face?

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