News-Info-Alerts

Re: US Buys Remains From North Korea

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: August 22, 2002

"U.S. Buys Remains From North Korea

NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2002

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea on Tuesday handed over to U.S. officials seven sets of remains believed to be those of American servicemen killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, U.S. military officials said.

In a brief ceremony at an airport in Pyongyang, the remains were given to a U.S. search team, which has jointly operated with North Korean authorities since July 20.

The remains were flown to a U.S. base in Japan for a U.N.-organized repatriation ceremony, including an honor guard. They will be flown to an Army laboratory in Hawaii to confirm their identities.

The Pentagon said six sets of remains were recovered near the Chosin (Changjin) Reservoir, about 50 miles north of Pyongyang.

Changjin, which was mistakenly known as Chosin to foreigners, was one of the Korean War's hardest-fought battlefields. Tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers bombarded U.S. units near the reservoir late in 1950. The Americans retreated and left many of their dead hastily buried in shallow graves. The Pentagon estimates 1,000 U.S. soldiers have been lost in the battle.

The other set of remains was recovered near the Chongchon River, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang, in which the American 8th Army suffered the brunt of China's initial entry into the war and lost hundreds of men.

The repatriation was part of an agreement reached in June in Bangkok between U.S. and North Korean officials on three rounds of joint searches this year for the remains of missing-in-action soldiers, Kim Yong-kyu, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Korea, told United Press International. The two countries will continue recovery operations until Oct. 29.

The Pentagon says more than 8,100 American servicemen are missing in action from the Korean War.

U.S. forensic experts, assisted by North Korean workers, have conducted 23 operations in the North since 1996 and have recovered remains believed to be those of 159 American soldiers. Thirteen have been positively identified and returned to their families for burial with military honors.

U.S. Pays Dictatorship Millions of Dollars

North Korea has received millions of dollars in return for its cooperation for joint searches of the remains. In July, the U.S. government handed over cash to the communist regime's military for this year's operations.

Kim refused to specify the amount. South Korean news reports had said the United States agreed to pay North Korea at least $3 million this year.

North Korea had handed over the recovered remains to the U.S.-led U.N. Command through the truce village of Panmunjom until 1999. But since 2000, the North has insisted on direct repatriation to the United States, in an apparent bid to nullify the UNC, which has monitored the Korean armistice mechanism.

The North has long called for a peace treaty with Washington to replace the 1953 armistice, part of a strategy to remove the U.S. military presence in South Korea. The United States has 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea.

These Americans Were U.N. Troops?

The United States and the UNC have said the remains are those of U.N. allied troops, not U.S. servicemen, because the American soldiers fought under the U.N. flag during the Korean War.

Copyright 2002 by United Press International"