News-Info-Alerts

Re: US-NK To Begin Remains Search

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: July 14, 2003

"U.S., North Korea to Look for Soldiers' Remains Later This Year

July 14 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and North Korea will jointly search for the remains of U.S. soldiers still missing from the 1950-1953 Korean War, the Defense Department said.

More than 8,100 servicemen remain missing. The joint searches will begin later this year in Unsan County, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, and near the Chosin Reservoir in the northeastern part of the country, the Defense Department statement said.

At Chosin, in late November and early December 1950, the surrounded 1st Marine Division fought 10 Chinese infantry divisions during a withdrawal toward a North Korean port. The American soldiers endured freezing weather in mountainous terrain.

Details of the search were negotiated in Bangkok last week by Jerry Jennings, deputy assistant secretary of defense for prisoner of war/missing personnel affairs. The two countries will meet again in November to discuss extending the searches into 2004.

The agreement is a rare example of cooperation between the two countries, who are at odds over nuclear arms. The U.S. accuses North Korea of violating a 1994 accord by clandestinely pursuing a nuclear weapons program, while North Korea claims it reprocessed 8,000 nuclear fuel rods, a move explicitly barred by the agreement, because it feels threatened by the U.S.

North Korea has asked for direct talks with the U.S. to discuss economic aid in return for dismantling its nuclear program. The U.S. insists talks must be in an international forum and says North Korea shouldn't be rewarded for ending a program it undertook in violation of the accord.

The Pentagon said talks aimed at recovering the remains of missing servicemen are a humanitarian issue and are independent of other areas of concern. Since 1996, American and North Korea teams have found the remains of more than 170 soldiers, according to the Pentagon.

About 37,000 U.S. soldiers are deployed in South Korea, and the two allies have begun planning to move American forces out of the demilitarized zone, the most heavily armed border in the world. North and South Korea technically remain at war, having never signed a peace treaty following the war on the peninsula.

©2003 Bloomberg L.P. "