Rescue Thai from North: Jenkins

BANGKOK (Kyodo) Charles Jenkins, the U.S. Army deserter who fled to North Korea, appealed for help Tuesday in finding a missing Thai woman who was allegedly abducted to the communist country in the late 1970s.

Jenkins, who stayed in North Korea for almost 40 years until 2004, said in his autobiography that he had met a woman there believed to be Anocha Panjoy.

In a speech in Bangkok on Tuesday at an international conference addressing the human rights situation in North Korea, Jenkins said Anocha hated being in Pyongyang. Jenkins, who now lives in Japan with his wife, Hitomi Soga, also criticized North Korea for refusing to acknowledge Anocha's abduction. Soga was abducted to North Korea in 1978.

Anocha is believed to have been kidnapped from Macau on May 21, 1978, her elder brother said.