Pardon Me

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has spent two years on a delicate diplomatic mission: negotiating the release of Japanese citizens kidnapped in the 1970s and '80s by North Korea. That effort has produced an unintended result: a looming extradition battle with the U.S. Among those freed is Charles Jenkins, who is accused by Washington of deserting from the U.S. Army and defecting to North Korea in 1965. On July 18, Jenkins was expected to land at Tokyo's Haneda Airport with his wife, former abductee Hitomi Soga, 45, and their children Mika, 21, and Belinda, 18.

Jenkins,...