S. Korea, US to Sign MOU on Recovery of War Dead
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The South Korean and U.S. military Monday agreed to conduct joint recovery and identification of remains of their soldiers killed in action during the 1950-53 Korean War, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said.
The MND Agency for Killed in Action Recovery and Identification (MAKRI); and the Joint Prisoners of War (POWs), Missing in Action (MIA) and Accounting Command (JPAC) affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense, will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the coming months, it said in a news release.
Under the agreement, the two agencies will share information related to the recovery and identification of the remains of fallen soldiers and conduct joint operations on a regular basis, it said. JPAC will also help train officials of the South Korean agency, it said.
``Cooperation between the two agencies will significantly help boost the efforts of South Korea and the United States to recover those killed in action,'' a ministry spokesman said.
The MoU signing was originally to be held in Seoul yesterday. But the ceremony was postponed due to what JPAC officials called a ``slight'' misinterpretation of intention.
Maj. Gen. Donna L. Crisp, commander of the JPAC, said she was unable to sign the MoU since she has not reported the proposed document to her superior.
``The agreement just talks how we are going to work together...so the paper is nothing compared to our handshake and our word of us working together as a team,'' the U.S. admiral told reporters.
Crisp said there are no ``issues'' in the agreement that prevent the United Sates from signing it, adding she will sign it the next time she visits here.
JPAC is a standing joint task force within the U.S. Pacific Command whose headquarters is located at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. Its mission is to account for all U.S. prisoners of war and missing in action from all past wars.
JPAC's operations are divided into four areas: analysis and investigation, recovery, identification, and closure.
South Korea's Army launched its operations to recover the remains of war dead in 2000. The Army mission was transferred to the MND early last year when MAKRI was established.
Since 2005, South Korea has found and handed over the remains of eight U.S. soldiers killed during the Korean War, while the United States has recovered the remains of three South Korean soldiers, ministry officials said.
The Korean War resulted in a devastating death toll with at least two million Korean civilians, some 400,000 South Korean troops and up to 1.5 million communist troops of North Korea and China being killed.
Some 8,100 U.S. military personnel are still missing from the war, according to reports.
The two Koreas remain technically at war because the conflict ended in an armistice on July 27, 1953, rather than a formal peace treaty.