Progress in Korea as of

January 2, 2001

(Provided by the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office)

 

 

 

1950 - North Korea Invades South Korea with 130,000 men, initiating the Korean War.

 

1953 - The United States, North Korea, and China sign armistice that ends the war, but fails to bring permanent peace.

 

1951-1955 - American Graves Registration Teams search South Korean Battlefields for remains. North Koreans return several thousand sets of remains in Operation GLORY in 1954; approximately 854 remains were declared unknown.

 

1990-1991 - North Korea unilaterally recovers and turns over 16 sets of remains to Senator Robert Smith and Representative G. V. “Sonny” Montgomery.

 

1992 - 30 sets of remains repatriated through the United Nations Command (UNC).

 

1993 - 162 sets of remains returned following the signing of a UNC-North Korean People’s Army (KPA) remains repatriation agreement.

 

1994 - Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) President Kim II Sung unexpectedly accepts former President Carter’s proposal to conduct Joint Recovery Operations (JROs) to search for U.S. remains. Political differences postpone implementation.

 

1996 - US-DPRK talks in New York agree to initiate JROs. First JRO conducted in July results in one set of remains recovered. Second JRO cancelled due to tensions generated by a North Korean submarine infiltration incident.

 

1997 - May US-DPRK talks in New York discuss restarting joint recoveries, initiating archival reviews, and establishing contact with a reported group of American defectors. North Korea agrees to 3 JROs.

 

1997 -December meetings in New York agree on five JROs and one joint archival review for 1998.

 

1998 - Both sides agree in New York to increase the number of JROs (6) and archival reviews (2) for 1999.

 

1999 -In June North Koreans refuse to repatriate four sets of remains from second JRO through Panmunjom. The Dense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) cancels third, fourth, and fifth JROs. North Koreans agree to talks in New York in October to discuss new repatriation procedures. As a result of those talks, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs led a delegation to Pyongyang on October 25 to repatriate the four sets of remains from the second JRO and to oversee resumption of the final operation of the year as scheduled.

 

1999 - December: both sides meet in Berlin to discuss operations for 2000. KPA explicitly links conduct of future JROs in the DPRK to the USG willingness to provide a large-scale assistance package. DoD rejects such linkage. The talks end without an agreement.

 

2000 - North Koreans return to the negotiating table in Malaysia without preconditions. The two sides agreed to 5 JROs for 2000. Upon the completion of JRO #5, 65 sets of remains were recovered this year. Secretary of State Albright met with the DPRK Vice Minister, Marshal Jo Myong Nok when he visited the US in early October and she also met DPRK Chairman Kim Jong II on her visit to Pyongyang later in October. During both meetings she emphasized the importance of gaining the fullest possible accounting for all missing American servicemen from the Korea War. She also pointed out with pride that our efforts and hard work were the bright spot in US-DPRK bilateral relations.

 

2000 - December: both sides meet again in Malaysia to discuss future operations in 2001. This was the most successful meeting between DPMO and the KPA to date. The two sides agreed to conduct 5 JROs at two separate locations concurrently. One CILHI team will continue work in the Kujang area for all 5 JROs.

Another team will conduct operations in the Kae’chon City area (known as “The Gauntlet” during the Korean War) for the first 3 JROs and then move to the Changjin (Chosin) Reservoir during the last 2 JROs. The first JRO is scheduled to begin in April.

 

Statistics

 

• 33,651 Service members killed in action (KIA)

-27,709 U.S. Army

-4,269 U.S. Marines

-1,198 Air Force

-475 U.S. Navy

 

• 7,140 Service members became prisoners of war

 

• More than 8,100 remain unaccounted for.

 

• To date, US Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii (USACILHI) has identified only nine of the total 208 remains recovered unilaterally by the North Koreans between 1990 and 1994.

 

• 107 sets of remains have been recovered during 17 JROs from 1996 to the present. Six have been identified.

 

Accounting Efforts on the Korean Peninsula

 

• There are three main pillars of the Korean War accounting program: live-sighting resolution; archival and oral history research efforts; and remains recovery operations in both the north and south.

 

• DPMO, with the full support of the intelligence community, aggressively investigates all reports and sightings of alleged American survivors of the Korean War living in North Korea. There have been no credible reports to date other than those that pertain to four known US defectors living in North Korea.

 

• Archival research and oral history programs are underway in the US, North and South Korea, and in China. These programs are designed to determine the circumstances of loss for missing service men; build our knowledge base on Korean War battle incidents; gain eyewitness accounts of prison camp life and prisoner movements; and gain access to materials and maps germane to POW/missing personnel matters.

 

• The U.S. pays fair and reasonable expenses associated with the efforts to recover remains, but will not pay ransom for the remains themselves.

 

• Both sides will meet in December to discus JROs for 2001.

 

Associated Developments with China

 

• The US continues negotiations aimed at access to archives in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Focus is on working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) to find avenues for engaging the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which controls access to archival materials and witnesses.

 

• Over the past decade, the USG has presented official requests for information on almost 200 individual Korean War unaccounted for cases. China has yet to respond to any of these.

 

• DASD Jones and his MFA counterpart, Mr. Chen Mingming, met in January and September of this year. Mr. Chen agreed to work with DPMO to establish an oral history program (OHP) focused on interviews with Chinese Korean War veterans involved in POW camp operation. DASD Jones kicked-off this program during his September visit with the interview of four Korean War POW camp workers. Mr. Chen also agreed to a DPMO request to establish US-PRC academic exchanges focused on the Korean War, and to pursue avenues for open source archival research.

 

• During July visit to Beijing, SECDEF highlighted importance of increased cooperation on Korea War accounting.