It appears that the North Koreans did not pull any stunts like they have in the past such as including animal bones as part remains that have been handed over. Instead this time it appears these are legitimately the remains of Korean War era servicemembers:
Remains recently handed over by North Korea are loaded onto an Air Force transport plane at Osan Air Base, South Korea, for their trip to Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018.
Fifty-five cases presumed to be holding the remains of U.S. troops killed in the Korean War began their journey home Wednesday after a formal send-off at this air base south of Seoul.
North Korea handed over the remains last week, the first repatriation in more than a decade and a move that partially fulfilled an agreement reached during the June 12 summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump.
Hundreds of U.S. and South Korean servicemembers attended the ceremony along with dignitaries from the 15 other countries that fought in the 1950-53 war.
The cases lined up in a hangar at Osan were covered with blue United Nations flags pending final identification.
But a two-day forensic review showed that the remains appear to be human and “are likely to be American,” John Byrd, an anthropologist with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, told reporters before the ceremony.
“Our preliminary findings were that the remains are what the [North Korean] officials said they were,” Byrd said, adding that it was one of the largest unilateral turnovers ever received from the North.
“There’s no reason at this point to doubt that they do relate to Korean War losses,” he said. [Stars & Stripes]
I can only imagine what the bill the Kim regime would demand the US pay to search for war remains within North Korea:
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis acknowledged Friday the Pentagon could send military teams into North Korea to search for the remains.
Pentagon officials previously said North Korea had already excavated about 200 sets of remains of fallen American soldiers. North Korea experts suggested that the regime would want compensation for recovering the remains, which in turn could jeopardize the U.S.-led economic sanctions on North Korea.
After vowing to continue putting ‘maximum pressure’ on the North until it is fully denuclearized, the Trump administration now faces a dilemma as it may have to make a deal with North Korea to continue the excavation work without appearing to make compromises.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News. [KBS World Radio]
President Trump may be thankful towards the Kim regime for the return of the remains, but I think he has found out that even a simple issue like this is more difficult and drawn out than it needs to be by the regime. Imagine how long and drawn out they will try and make any denuclearization process?:
Military personnel carry boxes containing the remains of U.S. soldiers, killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, out of the C-17 Globemaster, a U.S. Air Force transport aircraft, at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, about 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on July 27, 2018. The transport aircraft airlifted the remains of U.S. soldiers from Kalma Airport in North Korea’s eastern coastal city of Wonsan. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
U.S. President Donald Trump thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday for ”fulfilling a promise” to return the remains of U.S. soldiers missing from the Korean War, as a U.S. military plane made a rare trip into North Korea to retrieve 55 cases said to contain remains.
Close to 7,700 U.S. soldiers remain unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, and about 5,300 of those were lost in North Korea.
North Korea’s move signals a positive step in Trump’s diplomacy with Pyongyang, and may restart efforts to send U.S. teams into the country to search for additional war dead.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis cautioned that the transfer of remains ”is separate” from what has so far been troubled efforts to negotiate the complete denuclearization of North Korea. But he said it was a step in the right direction following the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore.
”This is obviously a gesture of carrying forward what they agreed to in Singapore and we take it as such,” Mattis told reporters Friday. ”We also look at it as a first step of a restarted process. So we do want to explore additional efforts to bring others home.” [Korea Times]
On the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Korean War armistice here's some Ethiopian veterans visiting Chuncheon, where there's a memorial to their service (and an Ethiopian-themed coffee shop). One gent said he'd returned to look for his missing arm. pic.twitter.com/3USsQrZlrP
Here is an interesting article about one of the seven American civilians that were captured and killed in captivity during the Korean War:
William Evans says his father and namesake was a mining engineer who acted as an adviser to the U.S. military in Seoul when the Korean War broke out. He was captured by the North Koreans and died alongside U.S. soldiers imprisoned by a brutal commander known as “The Tiger.” COURTESY OF WILLIAM EVANS
The list of American civilians lost in North Korea during the 1950-53 war is short. Just seven names, compared with more than 7,000 troops.
But William Evans says the government has a responsibility to try to bring them all home.
His father and namesake was a mining engineer he says acted as an adviser to the U.S. military in Seoul when the Korean War broke out. He was captured by the North Koreans and died alongside U.S. soldiers imprisoned by a brutal commander known as “The Tiger.”
Evans, a 72-year-old retired professor, is hoping his father may be brought home as the hunt for remains gains new attention.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed during his June 12 summit with President Donald Trump to try to recover the war dead, including “the immediate repatriation of those already identified.” (…..)
Less known is a list of seven American civilians who died in the war and were not recovered, including Evans’ father who ended up in a group of more than 700 mostly 24th Infantry Division soldiers commanded by a notorious North Korean officer.
Pfc. Wayne “Johnnie” Johnson, one of just 262 survivors from the so-called “Tiger group,” secretly recorded the names of 496 fellow prisoners who died in captivity.
The “Johnnie Johnson list,” which didn’t become public until the 1990s, recorded the date of death for William H. Evans Sr. as Dec. 12, 1950. He was 55. [Stars & Stripes]
It will be interesting to see how many remains the Kim regime actually returns this week. Previous reports said up to 55 which is quite a large number:
North Korea seems to have completed preparations for the transfer of the remains of American service members killed in the Korean War, as it has received wooden boxes from the United States, a diplomatic source in Seoul said Thursday.
“North Korea recently took two truckloads of wooden boxes to be used for the remains repatriation. It’s expected to hand over the remains on July 27 as agreed upon,” the source said.
On Friday, the two Koreas and the U.S. commemorate the 65th signing anniversary of the Armistice Agreement that ended the three-year conflict.
The U.S.-led United Nations Command had stored the boxes at the border village of Panmunjom for weeks. [Yonhap]
In honor of the 65th anniversary of the Korean War armistice it appears the North Koreans are prepared to hand over a large number of remains:
North Korea has agreed to hand over as many as 55 sets of remains believed to be from American troops killed in the 1950-53 war, and to allow the United States to fly them out of the country next week, a U.S. official said Tuesday.
The preliminary details emerged after U.S. and North Korean officials held working-level talks Monday in the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone.
The Americans planned to send transit cases via truck to the DMZ, where they would be given to the North Koreans to use for the remains. “They’re going to use our cases for the remains and give them back to us,” the official told Stars and Stripes.
A U.S. delegation was expected to retrieve the remains in North Korea and fly them out on July 27, either to Osan Air Base in South Korea or Hawaii, the official said, adding that the date may change as the two sides planned to iron out final details during another meeting in the near future. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but the North Koreans according to the article are supposedly not asking for anything in return for the remains.
Here is what came out of the general level talks with North Korea on the war remains issue:
The United States and North Korea have agreed to resume searching for the remains of thousands of American soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday.
The agreement came at a general-level meeting between the two sides earlier in the day, Pompeo said in a statement. On Monday the two countries will begin working-level talks to coordinate the repatriation of remains already found in the North, he added.
“This meeting was aimed at fulfilling one of the commitments made by Chairman Kim at the Singapore Summit,” Pompeo said in the statement, noting that it was the first general-level talks between the two countries since 2009. “Today’s talks were productive and cooperative and resulted in firm commitments.” [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder if this so called search for remains in North Korea will require cash payments to the Kim regime as they demanded in past searches?
