Reunited in Indonesia with her family after nearly two years, a Japanese woman once abducted to North Korea spent hours talking to her husband, a former U.S. soldier Washington says deserted to North Korea in 1965.
Hitomi Soga, who met and married Charles Robert Jenkins after she was abducted as a young student nurse, said she needed time following Friday's emotional reunion to settle in with her family, including her two daughters, Mika, 21 and Belinda, 18.
"I am happy that the four members of our family have been able to spend, for the first time in a year and nine months, precious time (together) in a beautiful, tropical country," Soga said in a statement issued on Saturday.
Soga, 45, who left her family in North Korea when she returned to Japan in 2002, thanked the Indonesian government for helping to achieve the reunion.
"I would like to have time for discussions with my family without rushing, while staying in Jakarta," Soga said.
How long they stay in Indonesia and where they go after is uncertain.
The couple spent the night talking for hours, said a Japanese embassy official who translated a media briefing at the embassy.
"Mrs. Soga seems to be relieved, relaxed after those events. There's so much talk between Mrs. Soga and Mr. Jenkins. It just never stops," the official said, translating cabinet secretary adviser Kyoko Nakayama's briefing to Japanese media.
Family adjusting to hotel
Japanese officials said the Jenkins were struggling to come to terms with the luxury of their five-star hotel after decades spent living in North Korea.
Accustomed to conditions in the impoverished state, the North Korean-born daughters sought to mop the floor of the family suite in a downtown hotel, and washed their own clothes, the officials said.
The family has not ventured out of the suite so far, with the daughters listening to music and watching videos Soga brought from Japan.
They have made no request yet to go out, but the embassy said it would smooth the way as much as it could. Soga wants to persuade Jenkins, 64, and her daughters, to live in Japan, but Jenkins has so far refused for fear he would be handed over to U.S. authorities for court martial.
Unlike Japan, Indonesia has no treaty with the United States requiring a handover. Japan has asked the United States to give Jenkins special treatment, but Washington has made no promises.
For Indonesia, the reunion offers a chance to be at the center of a humanitarian gesture and cultivate relations with Japan, an important aid and trade partner.
Jenkins was a 24-year-old army sergeant in South Korea leading a patrol near the demilitarized zone one winter night in 1965 when he left his men to investigate a noise.
The United States says he slipped into North Korea. His American relatives say he was abducted and brainwashed, and want a pardon.
Soga was a young student nurse when she was kidnapped by North Korean agents while returning from shopping with her mother, who has not been heard from since.