Category: Korean War

The Trump diplomacy with North Korea ultimately did not amount to much, but one of the good things that happened was that the Kim regime handed over 55 Korean War remains that continue to be identified using DNA analysis:

He was killed on the battlefield aged just 27 while fighting in the Korean War in 1950. Now, 72 years later, U.S. Army Cpl. Tommie T. Hanks has finally been identified and accounted for.

Cpl. Hanks was originally from Fort Worth, Texas, and was reported missing in action on Nov. 26, 1950, after his unit was attacked by the enemy as it attempted to withdraw from east of the Ch’ongch’on River near Anju in North Korea, according to a statement from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) this week.

“Following the battle, his remains could not be recovered,” the DPAA said, and Hanks was declared “nonrecoverable” on Jan. 16, 1956.

However, after a historic meeting between former president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June 2018, Pyongyang turned over 55 boxes to U.S. authorities that “purported to contain the remains of American service members killed during the Korean War.”

The remains were taken to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where DPAA laboratory experts worked to identify the individuals. Scientists “used anthropological and isotope analysis” as well as DNA evidence to identify Hanks.

His body was finally accounted for in August 2022, the DPAA said, and it found “no evidence that he was ever a prisoner of war.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime still holds many more war remains that they keep as bargaining chips for future negotiations.

Hollywood has finally taken me up on my suggestion I made many years ago to make a movie on the life of Korean War hero Jesse Brown. It is amazing it took this long to make such an inspiring story into a movie after all these years of mostly trash war movies. Hopefully Hollywood sticks to telling the real life story of Jesse Brown and does not Hollywood-ize it:

Devotion, an aerial war epic based on the bestselling book of the same name, tells the harrowing true story of two elite US Navy fighter pilots during the Korean War. Their heroic sacrifices would ultimately make them the Navy’s most celebrated wingmen.

Youtube

You can read my prior posting about Jesse Brown at the below link:

The story for this webtoon sounds ridiculous, but it is cool that it is highlighting the Thai soldiers that fought in the Korean War:

Days after the 1950-53 Korean War broke out, Thailand became the first Asian nation to respond to the U.N.’s call for aid to South Korea.

Over the course of three years, it supplied the war-ravaged country with 40,000 tons of rice as food aid and dispatched 6,326 soldiers in army, navy and air force units to fight off waves of enemy attacks, according to the Ministry of National Defense.

After the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement on July 27, 1953, Thailand continued to maintain a combat unit in Korea until 1972.

A webtoon series that aims to revisit and celebrate this underappreciated historical legacy left by Thailand’s contribution to the Korean War will be launched later this year.

Kakao Entertainment and the Korean Cultural Center (KCC) in Thailand will unveil the series, titled “One Day, My Favorite K-Pop Idol Group Leader Disappeared!” (direct translation), on the Southeast Asian nation’s online platform in September, the company announced, Friday.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.