Jenkins signs up at Sado tourist mine

NIIGATA (Kyodo) Charles Jenkins, a U.S. Army deserter to North Korea who now lives on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, will start working Saturday at the former Sado Gold Mine, which is now a tourist attraction, sources close to him said Friday.

Jenkins, 66, husband of repatriated Japanese abductee Hitomi Soga, plans to work two days a week until November to provide gardening and other maintenance services as many tourists visit the old mine during the season, they said.

He has been interested in tourism and is looking forward to working there, they said.

The Sado Gold Mine facility contains a museum, old mine shafts and displays of people digging for gold. The mine flourished in the Edo Period.

Jenkins is married to Soga, 47, who was abducted by North Korea in 1978 at age 19.

Soga was allowed to return to Japan in 2002, and Jenkins and their two daughters were reunited with her in 2004.