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by Lolita Baldor, Ahn Young-Joon and Kim Tong-Hyung | President Donald Trump on Friday thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for "honoring a promise" to return the remains of US soldiers missing from the Korean War as spokesman for the United States. a military plane made an exceptional trip to North Korea to recover 55 remains of remains.
Nearly 7,700 American soldiers are still missing from the Korean War between 1950 and 1953 and about 5,300 in North Korea.
The decision of the North Korea on a trusteestrategywithPyongyangandcbadlow efforts to send American teams to the country in search of other warriors
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, which has so far been troubling efforts to negotiate the full denuclearization of North Korea. But he said it was a step in the right direction after the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore
"It's obviously a gesture to postpone what they agreed to in Singapore and we take it as such, "Mattis told reporters on Friday. . "We also see this as a first step in a restarted process." Despite the growing rhetoric about denuclearization before the Singapore meeting, the summit has ended with a vague, aspirational goal for a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. without describing when and how this would happen.
Subsequent talks between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean officials began early this month, with the North accusing the Americans of making unilateral demands. and gangsters in favor of denuclearization On Wednesday, Pompeo said that much work remained to be done before a denuclearization agreement in North Korea, but he refused to provide a timetable.
Trump, addressing to reporters on the South Lawn, said Vice President Mike Pence Remains Soldiers
"We get a lot of others, but I ti to thank President Kim to the media for keeping a promise he has made, and I am sure he will continue to fulfill that promise. Trump said, "These incredible American heroes will soon be resting on the sacred soil of the United States," he added.
Pence, the son of a veteran of the Korean War, said: a statement that he will attend the ceremony when the remains will arrive at United Nations Command of the United States, said the remains would be transported to Hawaii immediately after a ceremony of honors in Seoul on Wednesday
"It is deeply humiliating to be part of this historic moment" Pence said. We will never forget the sacrifices these brave soldiers and their families made for our nation and our freedoms. "
Friday morning in Korea, a US Air Force C-17 transport aircraft made a rare trip to North Korea to recover 55 cases of what appears to be remnants of the Korean War. The aircraft then flew from Wonsan to Osan Air Force Base in Pyeongtaek, near the South Korean capital of Seoul.
On Air Base, US Military and Guard of the United States. military honor lined up on the tarmac to receive the remains transported.boxes covered with UN blue flags.Officials in North Korea did not comment on the transfer, which took place on 65th Anniversary of the End of the Korean War
Once the cases arrive in Hawaii, a series of forensic examinations will be conducted to determine whether the human remains and whether the dead were American or Allied troops killed in the conflict.
Mattis pointed out this impending "We do not know who is in these boxes." But he said that the gesture is important for families to include any of the allies who also fought in the war.
"We have families who when they had the telegram, never had closure," said Mattis. "They never went out and the body was returned."
More than 36,000 American soldiers died in the conflict, including those who went missing.
The repatriation of the remains could be followed by North Korean claims for accelerated talks to formally end the war, which was stopped with an armistice and not a peace treaty. The South Korean Ministry of Defense also said the North had agreed to general-level military talks next week in a border village to discuss the reduction of tensions across the heavily armed border of these countries
. Korea has been stored for a while and has probably been recovered from the land during agriculture or construction. The vast majority of war victims, however, still have to be located and recovered from cemeteries and battlefields across the countryside.
Efforts to recover the American war dead have been stalled for more than a decade. The program and a previous US badertion that security measures for northern personnel were inadequate.
From 1996 to 2005, US-North Korean military research teams conducted 33 recovery operations. North Korea's last visit dates back to 2007, when Bill Richardson, former UN ambbadador and governor of New Mexico, got the return of six sets.
Washington stated that Pyongyang would not get any sanctions and rewards, unless it does commit itself firmly to totally and verifiably eliminate its nuclear weapons. There are lingering doubts as to whether Kim would ever agree to completely surrender his nuclear weapons, which he might regard as a stronger guarantee of survival than any security guarantee that the United States could offer.
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Ahn reported from Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Kim reported from Seoul and Baldor from Washington. AP reporters Eric Talmadge in Pyongyang, North Korea, Kim Yong-ho in Pyeongtaek, Foster Klug in Seoul, and Ken Thomas and Sagar Meghani in Washington contributed to this report
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This document may not be published, distributed, rewritten or redistributed.
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