AKIPRESS.COM - A former US Army sergeant who defected to North Korea while stationed on the Korean Peninsula at the height of the Cold War has died in Japan at the age of 77.

Charles Jenkins died from heart failure and was discovered unconscious by his daughter at his home in Sado Island, northern Japan, on Monday night, Yoshiyuki Tomi from the Japanese Cabinet Office told CNN.

Police and the hospital said there were no irregular circumstances.

His wife, Hitomi Soga, released a statement saying she was "very shocked by this sudden incident."

Jenkins crossed into the North in 1965 while stationed at a US military unit near the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the heavily guarded border that separates North and South Korea.

Jenkins later claimed to have regretted his defection and blamed the decision on alcohol.

While in North Korea, Jenkins appeared in propaganda films, taught North Korean spies English and spent up to eight hours a day studying the writings of North Korean leaders.