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Charles Robert Jenkins

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Military Personnel

The Resume

    (February 18, 1940-December 12, 2017)
    Born in Rich Square, North Carolina
    Defected to North Korea while on night patrol (January, 1965)
    His Japanese-born wife was allowed to return home in a détente exercise (2002)
    He and their two daughters were able to join her after negotiations by the Japanese government (2004)
    At a court martial, pled guilty to charges of desertion and aiding the enemy (November 3, 2004)
    Sentenced to 30 days in jail, dishonorable discharge from the army and forfeiture of pay and benefits
    Granted permanent residency in Japan (2008)
    Wrote the memoir ‘To Tell the Truth’ (2005; published in the US as ‘The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court Martial and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea’ in 2008)

Why he might be annoying:

    He was worried his unit would be deployed to the shooting war in Vietnam, so he defected to North Korea.
    For some reason, he thought the North Koreans would send him to Russia and he would be traded back to the US in some Cold War swap.
    He appeared in North Korean propaganda films.
    When he returned to the West, he was so out of touch that he had no idea what 60 Minutes was when they asked to interview him, and said he hoped his story would appear in ‘Life’ magazine (which had folded in 1972).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was beaten by his guards if he failed to memorize passages from Kim Il-Sung’s philosophical tracts.
    A military tattoo on his arm was cut away without anesthesia.
    He said life in North Korea was so depressing, ‘Most days you wished you were dead.’
    His jail time was reduced by six days for good behavior.
    He said he wrote his memoirs partly to earn money and partly to spite Kim Jong-Il: ‘I don’t have to get his permission to do something anymore.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 87.50% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 9 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 89 Votes: 65.17% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 16 Votes: 50.0% Annoying