The following is a verbatim letter from DPMO with regard to the four Americans acknowledged to be in North Korea.
"DEFENSE PRISONER OF WAR/MISSING PERSONNEL OFFICE
2400 DEFENSE PENTAGON
WASHINGTON, DC 20301-2400
21 OCT 1997
In reply refer to: 1-97/55958
Mr. XXX and Ms. XXX
Post Office Box
Dear Mr. and Ms. XXX:
Thank you for your October 6, 1997, electronic letter to President Clinton regarding unaccounted-for American servicemen from the Korean War. Your letter was forwarded to the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO), and we are pleased to respond.
The mission of the DPMO is to lead and oversee the Department of Defense (DoD) effort to locate, account for, and repatriate Americans missing or captured as a result of past, current, and future hostile actions. We are vigorously working to account for the more than 8,100 Americans who are unaccounted for from the Korean War.
The major key to unlocking most of the answers we need in our accounting efforts for the Korean War lies in gaining access to North Korea. Last summer our long years of frustrating negotiations with the North Koreans succeeded in establishing joint recovery operations. In July 1996, 10 DoD experts deployed to North Korea on the first joint United States-North Korea remains recovery operation. During this operation, the remains of an American soldier from the 1st Cavalry Division were recovered and returned to his family for burial with full military honors.
In May 1997, we successfully negotiated with the North Koreans to conduct three recovery operations this summer and fall. Two of the operations have been conducted and the remains of five American servicemen were recovered. The third and final operation scheduled for 1997 is now underway. Moreover, in August for the first time ever, American archivists from our agency initiated a concentrated research effort in North Korea's central military museum for information that may relate to unaccounted-for American servicemen. We are hopeful these efforts, and those we hope to perform in the future, will yield information on many of our lost men.
We are not content to accept progress only on the remains recovery issue with the North Koreans. A key concern is unresolved reports alleging live American captives. Over the years, our Government has received reports, mostly hearsay, of live Americans in North Korea. Some of these reports allege the Americans are Korean War POWs; other reports describe them as defectors. Most of the reports are linked to the physical appearance of American defectors in the
2
North Korean propaganda film "Nameless Heroes," or their role as language instructors in a military training facility.
We are unfamiliar with your claim that the North Korean Government has offered to negotiate with the United States Government for live American prisoners who have been held since the end of the war; nor are we familiar with any American POWs who you refer to as "war criminals." We believe, however, that you are referring to American POWs who refused repatriation at the end of the war. Twenty-one American POWs and one British POW, as well as more than 200 South Korean POWs, refused repatriation at the end of the war. All of the American POWs and the British POW went to China. Of the Americans, only one ever returned to the United States, but he later returned to China where reportedly he still lives. If you would like to learn more about these men, I recommend you read Twenty-one Stayed: The Story of the American Gl's Who Chose Communist China--Who They Were and Why They Stayed written by Virginia Pasley.
We know of four American servicemen who deserted their units in the 1960s, subsequently defected to North Korea, and are living in North Korea. We have received reports that two later defectors died. Because of their close similarities with individuals in the propaganda film, and because some of the reports indicate the alleged POWs appear in the films and serve as language instructors, we suspect these defectors are the basis for at least some of these reports. However, because we have not ruled out the possibility that these four deserters do not account for all of the reports, we continue to press the North Koreans to provide us access to the four Americans.
I hope this information is helpful. To learn more about our organization and our efforts to account for our unaccounted for Americans, you should contact our Internet site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo.
Sincerely,
(signed)
Charles W. Henley
Director, Legislative
Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office
cc:
White House Liaison Office"