North Korea has returned what are believed to be the remains of US soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, the latest gesture of goodwill between the two nations following the Singapore summit in June.A US military plane made a rare trip into North Korea to retrieve 55 small, flag-draped cases of remains on Friday.
The White House earlier confirmed a US Air Force C-17 aircraft containing the remains of fallen service members had departed the North Korean city of Wonsan, on its way to the Osan air base in Pyeongtaek, near the South Korean capital Seoul.
About 7,700 US soldiers are listed as missing from the 1950-53 Korean War, with about 5,300 of those believed to be in North Korea.
Pyongyang has renewed calls for a declaration of the end of the Korean War, calling it the "First process for peace" and an important way Washington can add heft to security guarantees it has pledged in return for North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has led the US negotiating effort, told a Senate hearing on Wednesday that North Korea was continuing to produce fuel for nuclear weapons despite its pledge to denuclearise, even as he argued the United States was making progress in talks with Pyongyang.
Before the transfer of remains on Friday, the United States and North Korea had worked on so-called joint field activities to recover Korean War remains from 1996-2005.
More than 400 caskets of remains found in North Korea were returned to the United States between the 1990s and 2005, with the bodies of some 330 other Americans also accounted for, according to the Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/north-korea-returns-remains-us-083446785.html
The White House earlier confirmed a US Air Force C-17 aircraft containing the remains of fallen service members had departed the North Korean city of Wonsan, on its way to the Osan air base in Pyeongtaek, near the South Korean capital Seoul.
About 7,700 US soldiers are listed as missing from the 1950-53 Korean War, with about 5,300 of those believed to be in North Korea.
Pyongyang has renewed calls for a declaration of the end of the Korean War, calling it the "First process for peace" and an important way Washington can add heft to security guarantees it has pledged in return for North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has led the US negotiating effort, told a Senate hearing on Wednesday that North Korea was continuing to produce fuel for nuclear weapons despite its pledge to denuclearise, even as he argued the United States was making progress in talks with Pyongyang.
Before the transfer of remains on Friday, the United States and North Korea had worked on so-called joint field activities to recover Korean War remains from 1996-2005.
More than 400 caskets of remains found in North Korea were returned to the United States between the 1990s and 2005, with the bodies of some 330 other Americans also accounted for, according to the Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/north-korea-returns-remains-us-083446785.html
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