News-Info-Alerts

Re: US to Pay NK for Remains Search

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: July 15, 2003

"U.S. to pay to search for MIA remains
Americans arrange deal with North Korea

ROBERT BURNS Associated Press


WASHINGTON - The United States will pay North Korea $2.1 million to conduct four searches this summer and fall for remains of American servicemen missing from the Korean War, the Pentagon said Monday.

The deal was struck Saturday after three days of talks in Bangkok, Thailand, between North Korean Col. Gen. Li Chan Bok and an American delegation led by Jerry Jennings, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for POW-MIA affairs, according to a Jennings' spokesman.

The $2.1 million is reimbursement for services provided by the North Korean government, including the provision of aircraft for potential medical evacuation of U.S. search personnel.

The sides agreed that the Americans would conduct two searches, each for a month's duration, at two sites: in the vicinity of the Chongchon River, north of Pyongyang, and in the Chosin Reservoir area, scene of some of the most savage fighting of the war in late November and early December 1950.

The first effort, which would include excavation and repatriation of any remains found, is to be conducted Aug. 23 to Sept. 23; the second, Sept. 28 to Oct. 28.

More than 8,000 U.S. servicemen are listed as unaccounted for from the Korean War.

©Charlotte Observer"