Korea, US Join Hands to Excavate War Remains
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
A team of South Korean and U.S. officials has been working together to excavate the remains of American soldiers killed in action during the 1950-53 Korean War, the Ministry of National Defense said Tuesday.
It is the first time that officials of the two countries have conducted a joint recovery of war remains of fallen U.S. soldiers since Korea's Agency for Killed in Action Recovery and Identification (MAKRI) and the U.S. Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action and Accounting Command (JPAC) signed a memorandum of understanding on joint missions last August, the ministry said in a news release.
The recovery work began May 14 in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province. It will continue in nearby Cheolwon and Yeoncheon, according to the release.
In Hwacheon, there was a bloody battle in June 1951 between U.S. forces of the 7th and 24th army divisions of the U.S. 9th Corps and Chinese troops backing North Korea, it said.
The joint recovery team has found a collection of bone fragments and belongings in its latest work, it said.
It will take at least six months to fully identify the bones, said Jay Silverstein, an archaeologist working with the Hawaii-based JPAC.
About 8,100 U.S. soldiers remain unaccounted for from the Korean War that ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.
The Korean Army launched operations to recover the remains of war dead in 2000 and the mission was transferred to MAKRI in 2003.