Remains of 12 Korean War soldiers return home

By Lee Tae-hoon

The remains of 12 South Korean soldiers killed in North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War returned home Friday, marking the first case of the repatriation of South Korean war dead from the communist North since the July 27, 1953 armistice agreement.

This was made possible because a U.S. excavation team on a mission in the North had mistakenly classified and listed the South Korean bodies as their own and transported them to Hawaii for forensic identification a decade ago.

Members of the Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command (JPAC) carried out recovery missions in the North between 2000 through 2004 on the condition that only the remains of U.S. soldiers would be returned home.

However, the JPAC sent the bodies of 12 South Koreans to the United States on the erroneous assumption that a group of soldiers it unearthed in mass graves near battle grounds in the North were all U.S. soldiers.

The JPAC recovered and brought back the remains of 226 bodies in North Korea during the four-year period before Washington halted its recovery operations due to concerns over the safety and security of U.S. staff.

“It is affirmative that all of the 12 Asian bodies sent to Seoul via Hawaii would be those of South Korean soldiers as the North sorted out its troops and Chinese soldiers before burying them in the enemy’s graves,” said Lee Dyu-weon, an Army major at the Ministry of National Defense Agency for Killed in Action Recovery and Identification (MAKRI).

Of the 12, two were identified as Army privates first class Kim Yong-soo and Lee Kap-soo, who joined the war as members of the Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA) of the 7th U.S. Infantry Division.

Both Kim and Lee lost their lives in just four months after joining the military in December 1950 at the site of a major battle of the Korean War, the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in South Hamgyeong Province.

The two joined the military on Aug. 16, 1950 at the onset of the Korean War. Kim, a son of the late independent fighter Kim In-joo, was 18, while Lee, a father of two children, was 34 at that time.

Officials of the MAKRI said that their agency plans to carry out further forensic identification works for the remaining 10 bodies and make sure all of them are returned to their families.

President Lee Myung-bak also stressed that the South will continue its efforts to find the remains of those who sacrificed their lives in defending their country.

“South Korea was defended as they fought at the risk of their lives,” Lee said.

“There are many things to do if unification happens, but this will probably be the first thing we have to do. Finding the remains of those killed while defending the country is an important job we have to do as the first thing.”

Critics, however, accused Lee of being a hypocrite and opportunist, saying he made no effort to retrieve the bodies of its soldiers thus far, but wants to enjoy the media spotlight shown as a result of JPAC’s mistake.

The two Koreas agreed to carry out joint excavation missions and exchange for bodies of soldiers found near major battle sites in a meeting of defense ministers in November 2007.

However, the deal was scrapped as inter-Korean relations worsen after the Lee administration took a hard-line policy toward the Stalinist North since it took office in 2008.

Seoul estimates that 30,000 to 40,000 remains of South Korean soldiers were buried in the North as a result of the three-year conflict.

Some 140,000 South Korean troops were killed in action during the Korean War that left the country divided with an estimate of 450,000 injured. Some 215,000 North Korean soldiers died in action and 300,000 were wounded.