N. Korea repatriates first batch of American troop remains on day of victory

By Lim Chang-won Posted : July 27, 2018, 13:52 Updated : July 27, 2018, 16:36

[Yonhap Photo]


SEOUL -- A U.S military transport aircraft carrying the remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War landed in an air base in South Korea Friday after a cross-border flight to a North Korean airport.

The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, escorted by two jet fighters, touched down at the Osan air base about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Seoul shortly before 11 a.m. (0200 GMT), according to pool reports. The plane brought back the remains kept in an airport in the North's eastern coastal city of Wonsan.

 South Korean President Moon Jae-in welcomed the repatriation of 55 sets of remains as a good sign for rapprochment. It was the first batch of about 200 sets of remains that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un promised to repatriate at a landmark summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore in June.

"The Remains of American Servicemen will soon be leaving North Korea and heading to the United States! After so many years, this will be a great moment for so many families. Thank you to Kim Jong Un," Trump tweeted.

The White House said the repatriation would lead to the full excavation of some 5,300 American soldiers known to be killed and buried on the northern part of the Korean peninsula. From 1990 to 2006, Pyongyang returned hundreds of remains in return for financial compensation in a joint project with U.S. officials.

Friday's repatriation came as the two Koreas marked the 65th anniversary of signing an armistice on July 27, 1953, that ended the three-year Korean conflict. North Korea has celebrated July 27 as the day of victory.

In Osan, U.S. officials from the Defense POW (Prisoners of War)/MIA (Missing in Action) Accounting Agency would check the remains before carrying them to Hawaii later for forensic identification.
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