Kim Young-jin
Staff Reporter
The remains of a U.S. serviceman who went missing in action during the 1950-53 Korean War were recently returned to his family for burial, almost six years after they were excavated in North Korea, the U.S. Department of Defense said Thursday.
The soldier, Army Cpl. Stanley P. Arendt, was buried on March 29 in Palantine, Ill. with full military honors, the Pentagon said in a statement.
In May 2004, a joint U.S.-North Korean team excavated a mass grave near the town of Unsan after receiving a report that an elderly North Korean national had witnessed the death of U.S. soldiers at the site.
The team recovered remains and other personal artifacts that ultimately lead to the identification of seven soldiers.
Arendt was assigned to the 8th Cavalry Regiment in November 1950. According to the Pentagon, "Arendt's unit was involved in heavy fighting which devolved into hand-to-hand combat around their command post" near Unsan.
Some 400 men were reported missing in action or killed in action during the battle at Unsan, the statement said.
The United States conducted more than 30 excavation missions in the North from 1996 to 2005, finding the remains of what it believed to be some 230 soldiers. It estimates that the remains of some 8,000 of its soldiers are still there.
The joint excavation project between the two countries was halted in 2005 due to tensions over the North's nuclear ambitions.
On Monday, the North threatened to abandon its efforts to preserve the remains of U.S. soldiers who went missing during the war, unless the United States agrees to restart the project soon. In response, the U.S. State Department hinted the excavations could begin again after the North returns to the six-party talks on its denuclearization.
The project had been a source of hard currency for the North, which has reportedly been struggling with a worsening food situation and reeling from the effects of its disastrous currency revaluation.
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