News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: NK - Possible Remains Returned

Date: July 28, 2001

"Korean War Remains Returned to U.S. From S.Korea

SEOUL (Reuters) - The decomposed remains of a man believed to be an American killed in the Korean War nearly fifty years ago have been sent to Hawaii for identification after being found on a South Korean beach.

U.S. Forces led United Nations troops that helped defend South Korea against Chinese-backed North Korea during the 1950-53 War.

A Korean farmer discovered the remains and some personal effects washed up on a beach near Taejon, approximately 156 miles southwest of Seoul on Sunday.

"Based on the effects found with his body, which included dog tags, he was probably a pilot or part of an air crew," said Major Tim Callahan, operations chief for the United Nations Command's Military Armistice Commission.

"The farmer saw part of a boot sticking out of the mud," Callahan said. "I imagine the rains from last weekend washed some sand away which uncovered the remains."

The beach is not far from Inchon, site of a famed landing by U.S. troops led by General Douglas MacArthur in 1950.

A ceremony to honor the serviceman and formally turn over his remains to U.N. officials on Friday coincided with the arrival of Secretary of State Colin Powell, whose talks with Korean officials are expected to include military issues.

The United States has 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea.

Friday's set of remains was just the third to be repatriated from South Korea in the last two years.

They were flown to the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii where forensic and other experts will use DNA testing to try to identify them.

More than 8,000 UN soldiers, including U.S., British, Turkish, Australian and other troops, are unaccounted for following the war.

Most of the missing are believed to have died in North Korea, where efforts to recover remains have resulted in the return of fewer than 220 sets of remains.

The two Koreas remain technically at war under a 1953 armed truce."