WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The United States announced a plan Monday to hold talks with North Korea this week on resuming the joint recovery of U.S. soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War.
The talks will open in Bangkok on Tuesday, with agenda items confined to the remains recovery issue, according to the Defense Department.
The U.S. delegation will be led by Robert J. Newberry, deputy assistant secretary of defense for prisoner of war/missing personnel affairs, and will include officials from the State Department, the U.S. Pacific Command and the United Nations Command-Korea, the department said in a press release.
"The talks will only address the issue of resuming remains recovery of missing U.S. servicemen from the Korean War. Accounting for Americans missing in action is a stand-alone humanitarian matter, not tied to any other issue between the two countries," the department said.
Joint recovery efforts between the Cold War foes were suspended in 2005 after Washington took issue with the safety and security of its workers.
There are about 7,900 U.S. servicemen still unaccounted for from the Korean War, and 5,500 of them are estimated to be missing in North Korea, it said.
Diplomatic sources said, meanwhile, North Korea and the U.S. plan to hold another round of high-level talks next week in Geneva as part of efforts to restart the six-nation nuclear negotiations also involving South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.