News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Bob Necci & Carol Hrdlicka, Andi Wolos
(POW-MIA FaxNetwork)

Re: US Remains From NK Repatriated

Date: September 11, 1997

MFC No. 164-M

Remains believed to be those of an American soldier who died during the Korean War have been recovered in Unsan County, North Korea. The remains were excavated during a 20-day field operation by a joint U.S.-North Korean team in the northwestern part of North Korea, about 50 miles southwest of the Yalu River.

The team from the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii and the Department of Defense's POW/Missing Personnel Office had been excavating in an area where several hundred Americans are known to have been lost in fierce combat between U.S. and Chinese forces. The team also located some personal military equipment and ammunition buried with the remains.

The remains are scheduled to be returned to American control in a repatriation ceremony tomorrow in the demilitarized zone at Panmunjom. They will be taken to the CILHI where forensic processes will seek to establish the identifications of the Americans.

This is the third time U.S. specialists have entered North Korea for joint recovery operations. In July 1996, a similar joint team located the remains of an American soldier, also in Unsan County. Those remains were identified and returned to his family for burial with full military honors. This July, a joint recovery team found the remains of four Americans. They are currently undergoing forensic analysis at CILHI.

In an agreement signed by the United States and North Korea, both sides agreed that one more joint recovery operation will be conducted during October 1997. North Korea also permitted a U.S. archival team to review American-related records in Pyongyang's military museum Aug. 2-9, 1997. Documents and photos of other items found during that search are now being analyzed at the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office in Washington, D.C. Results of those analyses will first be provided to family members of Korean War MIAs.