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Ahn Young-Joon, Kim Tong-Hyung and Lolita Baldor, Associated Press
Published Thursday, July 26, 2018 11:37 PM EDT
Last Updated on Thursday, 26 July 2018 23:38 EDT
North Korea on Friday returned the remains of US soldiers killed during the Korean War, the White House announced, with a US military plane making an exceptional trip from an American base in North Korea. South Korea to a coastal city in the North to recover the remains.
The handover follows a promise made by Kim Jong Un to President Donald Trump when the leaders met in June and is the first tangible result of the summit
An Associated Press reporter at the base Osan's aerial outside Seoul saw the plane land, and the White House confirmed that a US Air Force C-17 aircraft containing spoils of missing military had left Wonsan in North Korea. way to Osan. An official repatriation ceremony will be held on August 1st.
In Osan, American soldiers and a military honor guard lined up on the tarmac to receive the remains, which were carried in boxes covered with United Nations blue flags. The details of what the United States had picked up were unclear, but reports indicated that Pyongyang would return about 55 remnants of the Korean War between 1950 and 1955.
About 7,700 US soldiers are missing of the Korean War. 5,300 remains would still be in North Korea. The war killed millions, including 36,000 American soldiers.
Despite the denuclearization rhetoric before their meeting, the Trump and Kim summit ended with a vague goal for a denuclearized Korean peninsula without describing when and how it would happen. The Friday handover will be followed by a long series of forensic examinations and tests to determine if the remains are human, and if they are actually US or Allied troops killed in the conflict.
Authorities in North Korea do not immediately return the remains Friday, the 65th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, as the country celebrates as the day of "victory in the war of liberation of the homeland."
Friday's repatriation could be followed by stronger North Korean demands. followed discussions with the United States on the conclusion of a declaration to formally end the war, which was halted by an armistice and not by a peace treaty. The South Korean defense ministry also said the North has agreed to hold general-level military talks next week in a border village to discuss reducing tensions across the heavily armed border of these countries
. The US military said last month that 100 "wooden temporary transit cases" built in Seoul had been sent to the Korean Joint Border Security Zone as part of preparations to receive and transport the remains. in a dignified manner. Colonel Chad Carroll, spokesman for US forces in Korea, also said at the time that 158 metal transfer crates had been sent to a US air base and that they would be used to return the remains. at home.
of 200 that North Korea has been storing for some time, and have 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 staff working in the North were inadequate.
From 1996 to 2005, US-North Korean military research teams conducted 33 recovery operations. North Korea's last visit was in 2007, when Bill Richardson, former US ambbadador and governor of New Mexico, won the return of six series.
The North celebrated the anniversary of this Friday. the capital Pyongyang and other cities were decorated with national flags and bright red banners. For the first time since 2015, Kim Jong Un announced that a general amnesty will be granted to prisoners who have committed crimes against the state.
North Korea has maintained the return of the remains as a symbol of its goodwill and intention to improve ties with Washington. Authorities have, however, inherited criticism from the United States for taking advantage of repatriation by demanding excessive charges for the handling and transport of remains.
Pyongyang nevertheless expressed its willingness to allow the resumption of joint research missions in the country. to recover more leftovers. Such missions had taken place from 1996 until their cancellation by President George W. Bush, due to increased tensions over the northern nuclear program in 2005.
Talks between Kim Trump and the Secretary of US state Mike Pompeo The beginning of the month was hectic as the North accused Americans of making "unilateral and gangster" demands for denuclearization. The North also said that US officials have proposed various "conditions and excuses" to revisit the issue of the official end of the war.
"The adoption of the declaration on the end of the war is the first and most important process, ending the extreme hostility and establishing new relations between the DPRK and the United States" , said Tuesday the Korean Central News Agency, in a statement, referring to North Korea under its official name. "Peace can come only after the declaration of cessation of war."
Pompeo said Wednesday that much work remains to be done before a denuclearization agreement in North Korea, but he dodged requests to identify a specific denuclearization agenda. Experts say that a statement to formally end the war, which could also involve Seoul and Beijing, would make it easier for Pyongyang to lead talks with Washington toward a peace treaty, diplomatic recognition, and the right to peace. security badurance and economic benefits. Some badysts believe that North Korea will demand that the United States withdraw or dramatically reduce the 28,500 soldiers scattered in South Korea.
Washington maintained that Pyongyang would not get any significant economic and security sanctions and rewards committed firmly to totally and verifiably eliminate its nuclear weapons. There are lingering doubts as to whether Kim would agree to give up his nuclear weapons altogether, that he might consider it a greater guarantee of survival than any security guarantee that the United States United could offer.
AP reporters Eric Talmadge in Pyongyang, North Korea, Kim Yong-ho in Pyeongtaek and Foster Klug in Seoul contributed to this report
