Remains of US Soldier Killed in Korean War Repatriated
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The remains of a U.S. soldier killed in the 1950-53 Korean War have been handed over to the United States after being discovered by a joint team of South Korean and U.S. excavators earlier this year, the Ministry of National Defense said Monday.
The remains included the teeth of a sergeant believed to have died in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, in 1951, the ministry's war remains recovery team said in a news release. The remains were sent to the United States Saturday for further identification, it said.
The U.S. soldier is presumed to have been a member of the U.S. 24th infantry division, it said.
The Hawaii-based U.S. Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command (JPAC) will make further efforts to confirm his identification, according to the release.
The handover marked the second time this year that the remains of a U.S. soldier killed in the 1950-53 conflict have been repatriated.
About 8,100 American soldiers remain unaccounted for from the war that ceased effectively with a truce on July 27, 1953. Many of them are believed to be buried on the North Korean side of the peninsula.
JPAC officials withdrew from the communist state in 2005 when North Korea boycotted six-nation denuclearization-for-aid talks and exited a non-nuclear proliferation pact, raising regional tensions.
The remains of seven U.S. soldiers have been found and repatriated since 2000, when the excavation by the South Korean military began.
Dozens of JPAC and South Korean excavators have been working at sites across South Korea since May in an effort to find the remains of more U.S. soldiers missing as a result of the Korean War.
The U.S., which fought under the U.N. command, maintains a force of some 28,500 troops in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea.