N. Korea hands over remains of four soldiers to US --- Coalition of Families

Forwarded by the Coalition of Families:

N. Korea Hands Over
Remains of Four Soldiers to US

TOKYO, Oct 25 (Reuters) - North Korea on Monday handed over to a US defense official the remains of four US soldiers missing since the Korean War, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Monday. It was the first time the North has directly handed such remains over to United States rather than to the United Nations, and follows an agreement reached earlier this month in the wake of improving ties between Washington and Pyongyang. A spokeswoman at US Yokota Air Base in Japan confirmed that North Korea had handed over the remains to a US Defense Department representative in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. She added that a U.N.-sponsored repatriation ceremony would be held later on Monday at Yokota, outside Tokyo. KCNA, monitored in Tokyo, said the remains had been turned over ``according to the new procedure of handover and receipt agreed upon between the Korean People's Army side and the US Forces side. ``All remains to be unearthed during the DPRK-U.S. joint excavation of US soldiers' remains will be handed over to the US military, not to the 'UN Forces' side,'' KCNA added.

The United States, in a historic shift in policy, announced last month that it was easing long-standing trade sanctions in exchange for North Korea's pledge to suspend its tests of long-range missiles. On October 15, North Korea agreed to turn over to the United States the remains believed to be of four more US servicemen, ending a stalemate that had hampered US MIA (missing in action) joint recovery operations in North Korea since June.

North Korea has been cooperating with the United States for the past four years in joint searches for the remains of American servicemen missing from the 1950-53 war.

Remains believed to be those of 39 troops have been recovered but about 8,200 US troops are still missing from that conflict, which ended in an armed truce rather than a peace agreement.

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