TOKYO, Nov. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Charles Jenkins, a US military serviceman, received a minor sentence Wednesday to 30 days in confinement and dishonorable discharge by a US court-martial for his desertion in 1960s, the US Army said.

    Jenkins pleaded guilty to charges of desertion and aiding the enemy, but rejected those of disloyalty and soliciting other personnel to desert, it said.

    The judge "concluded the court-martial proceedings by announcing a sentence against Jenkins of reduction to the Army's lowest rank of private, total forfeiture of pay and allowances, a dishonorable discharge, and confinement for 30 days," the Army said.

    Prosecutors sought a nine-month jail term on the court, according to Kyodo News.

    The trial was conducted at Camp Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture neighboring Tokyo.

    Jenkins will serve his sentence at a US Navy facility near CampZama, it said.

    There will be a mandatory review of the case by the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals, it said.

    The 64-year-old American was charged with deserting to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in 1965 while servingin South Korea.

    He told the hearing he wanted to avoid duty on the Korean peninsula and Vietnam, according to Kyodo News.

    The NHK TV station broadcast a video provided by the US military, in which uniformed Jenkins stepped down from a van and headed to the court accompanied by several US servicemen.

    Jenkins married a Japanese woman Hitomi Soga in 1980 in the DPRK. Soga, along with four other Japanese abducted by the DPRK in1970s and 1980s, returned to Japan in 2002 after the first DPRK-Japan summit meeting.

    He had been reluctant to come to Japan for fear of facing court-martial, but finally decided to live with Soga. The family reunited in July in Jakarta before heading back to Tokyo.

    He received medical treatment at a Tokyo hospital before turning himself to the US military on September 11. He, then, was assigned to an administrative support unit at the camp.

    The Japanese government had asked the US side to pardon Jenkinsto allow him stay in Japan. Enditem