The Korean War
The Korean War started between North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea, ROK) on 25 June 1950 and paused with an armistice signed 27 July, 1953. To date, the war has not been officially ended through treaty.
The United States and the United Nations intervened on the side of the South. After a rapid UN counteroffensive reversed the initial North Korean invasion, the People's Republic of China (PRC) intervened on the side of the North. The fighting ended with the armistice, creating a Demilitarized Zone, a 2.5 mile wide buffer zone between the two Koreas. North Korea unilaterally withdrew from the armistice on 27 May 2009.
Once the shooting stopped, the numbers were tallied. Over 8,000 American servicemen were missing. Many were believed dead and left behind in overrun battlefields, lost in prisoner-of-war camps, perished in air losses scattered across the North Korean countryside, or interred on American soil as unknowns. Too many others were simply missing. The undeniable conclusion was that the regimes in China, the former Soviet Union, and North Korea had credible knowledge regarding the fate of many of these missing men. Our enemies remained our enemies for decades, however, and denied any knowledge of missing American soldiers.
Initially, the U.S. government demanded answers, but the cold shoulder of the Cold War only produced blanket denials. Incensed families of the missing men demanded that more be done. Congressional hearings were convened. The issue was brought to light at home, and the media followed. The Iron Curtain proved to be formidable, however. Interest waned, and the missing men, alive or not, were written off by their government and their nation as casualties of war. Their families were left to reconcile their loved one’s official death with an ever-present hope that he might walk through the front door any day.
During the decades that followed, live sighting reports placed unnamed American prisoners from the war in all three Communist countries. Official demands and short-lived press coverage flared up, but blanket denials and complete lack of access to these nations quieted each storm. No one knew the course the missing men's lives took.
Change In Policy
The end of the Cold War brought a change of view. The Berlin Wall came down. The Iron Curtain became transparent. Russia’s President Yeltsin admitted American prisoners-of-war had been taken to the now former Soviet Union. Families of the Korean and Cold War missing men organized and called upon the government’s long standing promise to resolve the fate of their missing loved ones.
Congress formed an agency and appropriated funds dedicated to the accounting mission. A comprehensive list of the missing men was compiled. The official status of many of these men changed from killed to missing-in-action or prisoner-of-war. Agreements made with foreign nations allowed new access to their wartime archives. Remains recovery and oral history operations began in countries around the world. Advancements in DNA technology, and other sciences, made it possible to identify remains that had long rested in anonymity. Genealogy experts located disconnected family members. America's accounting effort became unparalleled throughout the world.
Current Overview
The Korean War POW/MIA mission is best characterized by its many issues. Each of them is best pursued individually, while keeping an eye on the whole picture.
* The majority of missing men (over 5000) lay beneath former battlefields and the cemeteries of prisoner of war camps.
Joint recovery team operations between the U.S. and N.K., cancelled in 2005, need to be resumed.
* The stories of 900 missing airmen are carried by villagers near 600 known crash sites spread across North Korea.
Small search teams need to visit these villages, listen to the stories, build a database for future disinterment teams and rewrite profiles for survivors.
* Nearly 1000 men remains missing across South Korea.
Searches for these men were extensive following the war. Their mysteries may never be solved.
* Men known to be alive but never came home.
These live sighting reports breakdown into separate issues of their own - men known to have been alive inside North
Korea, men seen in China, men taken to the former Soviet Union.
* Remains accumulated by North Korea and ready to be returned
The 2018 unilateral return of 55 boxes by the DPRK following the Singapore Summit is one of several unilateral returns
over the years.
* More than 600 Remains of unknowns returned following the war and interred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the
Pacific (Punchbowl) in Hawaii.
A 2018 plan is in place to disinter these remains in phases extending over a 3-5 year period.
* Classified P.O.W. debriefings, intel reports, and other files held in secret since the war.
The Bring Our Heroes Home Act is legislation currently being considered by Congress that will mandate the
declassification of all documents relating to POW/MIAs from World War II through the Korean, Cold, and Vietnam
wars.
There is a lot to do. The promise to bring home our missing servicemen is made to today’s soldiers and their families, just as it was made to those who served in past wars. If this promise is to hold credibility for the nation’s present-day servicemen and women, it must first be honored to completion for those who have gone before.
Please join us in this mission.
During the decades that followed, live sighting reports placed unnamed American prisoners from the war in all three Communist countries. Official demands and short-lived press coverage flared up, but blanket denials and complete lack of access to these nations quieted each storm. No one knew the course the missing men's lives took.
Change In Policy
The end of the Cold War brought a change of view. The Berlin Wall came down. The Iron Curtain became transparent. Russia’s President Yeltsin admitted American prisoners-of-war had been taken to the now former Soviet Union. Families of the Korean and Cold War missing men organized and called upon the government’s long standing promise to resolve the fate of their missing loved ones.
Congress formed an agency and appropriated funds dedicated to the accounting mission. A comprehensive list of the missing men was compiled. The official status of many of these men changed from killed to missing-in-action or prisoner-of-war. Agreements made with foreign nations allowed new access to their wartime archives. Remains recovery and oral history operations began in countries around the world. Advancements in DNA technology, and other sciences, made it possible to identify remains that had long rested in anonymity. Genealogy experts located disconnected family members. America's accounting effort became unparalleled throughout the world.
Current Overview
The Korean War POW/MIA mission is best characterized by its many issues. Each of them is best pursued individually, while keeping an eye on the whole picture.
* The majority of missing men (over 5000) lay beneath former battlefields and the cemeteries of prisoner of war camps.
Joint recovery team operations between the U.S. and N.K., cancelled in 2005, need to be resumed.
* The stories of 900 missing airmen are carried by villagers near 600 known crash sites spread across North Korea.
Small search teams need to visit these villages, listen to the stories, build a database for future disinterment teams and rewrite profiles for survivors.
* Nearly 1000 men remains missing across South Korea.
Searches for these men were extensive following the war. Their mysteries may never be solved.
* Men known to be alive but never came home.
These live sighting reports breakdown into separate issues of their own - men known to have been alive inside North
Korea, men seen in China, men taken to the former Soviet Union.
* Remains accumulated by North Korea and ready to be returned
The 2018 unilateral return of 55 boxes by the DPRK following the Singapore Summit is one of several unilateral returns
over the years.
* More than 600 Remains of unknowns returned following the war and interred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the
Pacific (Punchbowl) in Hawaii.
A 2018 plan is in place to disinter these remains in phases extending over a 3-5 year period.
* Classified P.O.W. debriefings, intel reports, and other files held in secret since the war.
The Bring Our Heroes Home Act is legislation currently being considered by Congress that will mandate the
declassification of all documents relating to POW/MIAs from World War II through the Korean, Cold, and Vietnam
wars.
There is a lot to do. The promise to bring home our missing servicemen is made to today’s soldiers and their families, just as it was made to those who served in past wars. If this promise is to hold credibility for the nation’s present-day servicemen and women, it must first be honored to completion for those who have gone before.
Please join us in this mission.