It appears that the North Koreans did not pull any stunts like they have in the past such as including animal bones as part remains that have been handed over. Instead this time it appears these are legitimately the remains of Korean War era servicemembers:
Remains recently handed over by North Korea are loaded onto an Air Force transport plane at Osan Air Base, South Korea, for their trip to Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018.
Fifty-five cases presumed to be holding the remains of U.S. troops killed in the Korean War began their journey home Wednesday after a formal send-off at this air base south of Seoul.
North Korea handed over the remains last week, the first repatriation in more than a decade and a move that partially fulfilled an agreement reached during the June 12 summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump.
Hundreds of U.S. and South Korean servicemembers attended the ceremony along with dignitaries from the 15 other countries that fought in the 1950-53 war.
The cases lined up in a hangar at Osan were covered with blue United Nations flags pending final identification.
But a two-day forensic review showed that the remains appear to be human and “are likely to be American,” John Byrd, an anthropologist with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, told reporters before the ceremony.
“Our preliminary findings were that the remains are what the [North Korean] officials said they were,” Byrd said, adding that it was one of the largest unilateral turnovers ever received from the North.
“There’s no reason at this point to doubt that they do relate to Korean War losses,” he said. [Stars & Stripes]
