[ad_1]
COMMON BASIS PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM (Reuters) – The US military is on the verge of identifying the first two American troops among the 55 boxes of human remains of the 1950-53 Korean War, delivered by the North Korea in July. forensic analysis said Monday.
Jennie Jin, a forensic anthropologist who heads the Korea War Project at the Prisoners of War / MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), shows some of the artifacts that accompanied human remains handed over by North Korea, including a portfolio, buttons and canteens. Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii September 10, 2018. REUTERS / Phil Stewart
"The identifications will be made officially in the coming days," said John Byrd, director of scientific analysis at the US Accounting Office POW / MIA. Families of the dead would be prevented first, he said.
The administration of President Donald Trump hailed the delivery of the remains as evidence of the success of his summit with North Koran leader Kim Jong Un in June. The White House said Monday that it was planning to hold a second meeting.
Critics, however, say the summit has so far failed to materialize the promised measures for Kim to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
The latest identifications will focus on the 7,699 US soldiers who, according to the US military press, are still not present in the Korean War. About 5,300 people were lost in present-day North Korea.
A small group of journalists had access Monday to a secure facility on the common base of Pearl Harbor-Hickam, where forensic anthropologists examine the remains of Pyongyang in July.
Byrd and his colleague Jennie Jin, who runs the Korean War project, spent more than an hour explaining the minute process of identifying leftovers, which includes methods to find DNA in fragments of bone.
Some bone fragments delivered in July are as small as a quarter. Other bones have degraded to the point where they are no longer much longer than a pencil.
"HUGE BATTLE"
However, the bone sets of the two American troops that will soon be identified are much more complete.
Both are from the same 1950 battlefields near the Chongchon River in what is now North Korea. US troops have suffered heavy losses against Chinese forces.
"It's a huge battle," said Jin, who estimated that 1,700 of the US forces that had disappeared from the Korean War came from this one fight.
She spoke above the tables of bone fragments, still separated by numbers corresponding to 55 boxes used by North Korea to deliver them to the United States.
Other paintings included personal belongings of unidentified soldiers, including buttons, canteens and old boots.
Byrd acknowledged that it could take months for the next round of identifications.
"There could be more and maybe just after Christmas," said Byrd, acknowledging that there were many variables that could change the schedule.
Jin, an American citizen born in South Korea, said the work had a personal connection. His grandfather, now 90 years old, is a war survivor who came from one of North Korea's present regions and experienced the most violent fighting. He was evacuated south on a US Navy ship, she added.
"It's really personal for me," said Jin.
The July transfer coincided with the 65th anniversary of the 1953 Armistice that ended fighting between North Korean and Chinese forces and South Korean and US forces under US command.
Both parties remain technically at war because a peace treaty has never been signed.
The United States and North Korea conducted joint searches for remains from 1996 to 2005, when Washington ended operations with the security of its personnel while Pyongyang intensified its nuclear program.
The Pentagon said it was considering the possibility of sending staff to North Korea to search for remains.
Report by Phil Stewart; Editing by Paul Tait
