Re: North Korea Agrees to Remains Repatriation

Date: February 21, 2004

"N Korea to repatriate US remains
February 21, 2004 - 5:05PM

North Korea has confirmed it has agreed to resume repatriating the remains of American war dead across the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas for the first time in more than five years.

The communist state will allow the United States to transport the remains overland across the border, a spokesman of the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People's Army was quoted as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The agreement was reached at bilateral talks on the issue of the remains of US soldiers which took place in Bangkok on February 11.

"At the talks the DPRK (North Korea) side did not meet the requests of the US side to transport the equipment and materials to be used for excavation and remains by its military transport plane for a security reasons but allowed its overland transport of them via Panmunjom," the spokesman said.

Panmunjom is a village which was destroyed in the war but gained lasting fame as the site where the 1953 Korean War armistice agreement was negotiated.

Also known as the joint security area, Panmunjom is on the inter-Korean border which runs along the 38th parallel. Since the end of the war, Panmunjom has been the venue for inter-Korean talks and contacts between North Korean and US military officials.

North Korea also flatly rejected US requests to discuss the issue of American survivors, the spokesman said.

"The US is misleading the public opinion by asserting that the talks served as a platform where its unilateral demand was met," the spokesman said.

"The DPRK side did not have any discussion on the issue of American survivors raised by the US side after ruling it out," he said.

The Pentagon has said North Korea had agreed to transport remains of US war dead across the demilitarised zone.

The North Koreans also agreed for the first time to propose that an official be designated to resolve reports of Americans living in North Korea, the Pentagon said.

Besides agreeing to repatriating remains across the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) at Panmunjom, the North Koreans said members of US recovery teams would be allowed to accompany remains into South Korea, Pentagon said.

US teams will conduct five operations to recover remains in Unsan County, 100 km north of Pyongyang, and near the Chosin Reservoir in the north-east of the peninsula.

More than 180 sets of remains believed to be of American soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War have been recovered since 1996. More than 8,100 are still missing in action.

©2003 AAP
© 2004 The Age Company Ltd."