Charles Jenkins, a U.S. soldier who disappeared while serving near the demilitarized zone near DPRK almost 40 years ago, was given on Wednesday a 30-day confinement and dishonorable discharge from the military for deserting to the North and aiding the enemy, the U.S. Army said.

Jenkins, 64, was demoted to private from sergeant in the sentence given at a trial held at the U.S. Army's Camp Zama in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. After the ruling, he was transported to the Yokosuka Naval Base, in the same prefecture, to be put into confinement.

The 30-day confinement was immediately effective following the sentence, which was the climax of the U.S. deserter's saga that dates back to the Cold War era and came to be highlighted as the story of his wife Hitomi Soga, one of the Japanese abducted to the North, unfolded.

The confinement could be shortened if a commander who is in charge of the procedures on Jenkins agrees to such action later, the U.S. Army said.

Jenkins, from Rich Square, North Carolina, is then likely to leave the U.S. Army and live together with Soga, who was abducted by DPRK and has been repatriated, and their two DPRK-born daughters in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, Soga's hometown.

Soga returned to Japan in October 2002 along with four other Japanese abductees, after Koizumi met with DPRK leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang. She left Jenkins and their daughters behind.

Jenkins left Pyongyang with the daughters in July for the first time in 39 years and traveled to Jakarta for a family reunion that was arranged by the Japanese government.

Source: Agencies