Category: Korean War

I hope no one really thought a deal on this issue was going to be reached because I never did:

 In a new sign of troubled relations with North Korea, the Pentagon said Wednesday it has suspended its efforts to arrange negotiations on recovering additional remains of U.S. servicemembers killed in the North during the Korean War.

In a statement Wednesday, the Pentagon’s Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency said it has had no communication with North Korean authorities since the Hanoi summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in February. That meeting focused on the North’s nuclear weapons and followed a June 2018 summit at which Kim committed to permitting a resumption the recovery of U.S. remains, which had been suspended by the U.S. in 2005.

“As a result, our effort to communicate with the Korean People’s Army regarding the possible resumption of joint recovery operation for 2019 has been suspended,” the agency said. “We have reached the point where we can no longer effectively plan, coordinate, and conduct field operations in the DPRK during this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, 2019.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the only way a deal was getting done was if the US paid North Korea an exorbitant amount of money to recover the remains as has been done in the past.

The North Koreans know exactly where the bulk of the remains are because the US military buried a large number of casualties in marked cemeteries before evacuating North Korea after the Chinese intervened in the war.

To be able to repatriate these remains to their family members the North Koreans have been demanding inflated prices which just shows how low the Kim regime is willing to go to make money.  The work to recover the remains ended in 2005 and so far does not look like it will begin again any time soon.

That’s like France trying to slap the US with a bill for beach cleanup and population displacement resulting from the Normandy landings.

— 🇰🇷Edward Oh🇺🇸 (@EdwardHBOh) March 26, 2019

Inchon City Council seeks compensation for victims of the Sept 15, 1950 "Inchon Landing," a turning point in the #KoreanWar, from the #ROK AND the #US & #UN. Why leave out the culprit of the war, the #DPRK? https://t.co/mGBXgW302K

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) March 21, 2019

Will Pyongyang also stop its assassinations, threats & subversion of South Korea's democracy? No more coded numbers broadcasts? No more United Front Dep't recruiting teachers, union leaders & students? And won't Pyongyang see VOA & RFA broadcasts as "toppling"? https://t.co/zwrahxstRw

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) February 1, 2019

Via a reader tip comes news that remains from the Korean War have been memorialized: 

The defense ministry has enshrined 365 sets of remains of those killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, at a national cemetery in Seoul, the ministry said Wednesday.

A group of high-ranking officials, including Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon and Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, participated and paid respect to the fallen soldiers during the event, according to the Ministry of National Defense.

“The defense ministry will continue fulfilling its responsibility and duty to bring back war remains to the bereaved families,” the ministry said in a statement.

Most of the remains have been recovered in border areas, such as Cheorwon in Gangwon Province, and Paju in Gyeonggi Province. The defense ministry has teamed up with the Army and the Marine Corps for the war remains excavation project which began this May and continued for eight months.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but with 365 war remains being memorialized you would think President Moon would have found time to attend this ceremony.

It is pretty strange that Korean War veterans are intentionally excluded from a Korean War memorial event:

I felt a little foolish this year when reporters and others present at the Turn Toward Busan ceremony at the UN Cemetery on Nov. 11 congratulated me for being prominently mentioned in the program. Some thought I was actually present, among the various dignitaries.

I wasn’t there. Nor were any veterans invited from the various nations that sent soldiers to fight in Korea during the war years.

The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs excluded the aging veterans from participating this year. Instead, they gave more than 100 places usually reserved for veterans to family members of those who fell in the war.

While no veteran will object to giving up his place to a bonafide grieving family member of a comrade, it was a major error of the MPVA to exclude veterans.

Ironically, the ceremony gave the impression that veterans from the many nations were actually present. The huge video screens set up on each side of the altar displayed a sign in English that read, “Thanks, Veterans.” But they were not there.

Bereaved family members are much younger than the veterans. In most cases they will be on this Earth much longer. Presumably, they will continue to be invited to Korea long after the veterans revisit programs end in 2020.

In several cases the family members invited were very distant relatives of the fallen soldiers. They were not born until many years after the Korean War ended, and never met or actually grieved for the fallen soldiers.

While their presence does perpetuate the memory of those who fell, it also excluded participation by those who served alongside those soldiers ― those who fought in the war and were spared.  [Korea Times]

I don’t understand what the problem is with adding more chairs to accommodate family members and veterans?  Why exclude veterans especially when they have been invited in prior years.

Here is what Dr. Tara O thinks is going on:

Min of Patriots & Veterans Affairs didn't invite Korean War vets from UN Sending States this year, unlike in the past. Many are in 80s. The Minister is Pi Woo-jin, who strongly supports Moon, whose priority is Kim Jong-un. How does Kim feel re UN vets?https://t.co/rekH21tM2e

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) November 29, 2018

It is pretty amazing that General Paik Sun-yup is now 99 years old and still going strong:

The U.S. Eighth Army held a surprise birthday party on Wednesday for General Paik Sun-yup, one of the most celebrated commanders of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The celebration of Paik’s 98th birthday — or the celebrated 99th by Korean count — was held at the Ministry of National Defense Convention Center in central Seoul with nearly the full roster of American representatives in Korea in attendance, including U.S. Ambassador to Korea Harry Harris and the new commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) Gen. Robert B. Abrams.

Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Park Han-ki and Commander of the First ROK Army Park Jong-jin were also present to congratulate the general.

Jeong presented Paik with a ceremonial military baton inlaid with mother-of-pearl as a birthday gift. Crouching before Paik, who was in a wheelchair, Gen. Abrams handed him a booklet of congratulatory messages and photographs from all current and former commanders of the USFK.

“You are like the foundation of the U.S-Korea alliance,” Abrams told Paik.

The two men share a unique connection that goes back to the Korean War. Abram’s father was Creighton Williams Abrams, a U.S. Army general who fought in Korea alongside Paik.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I had the chance to talk to General Paik many years ago and got him to sign a copy of his book,From Pusan to Panmunjon (Memories of War).  He was fascinating to talk to because his great memory of events that occurred and people he met during the Korean War.  If you haven’t read his book I highly recommend reading it because of the ROK perspective it provides in regards to events during the Korean War.

Here is an unusual ceremony that was recently held at Osan Airbase.  It is good to see that the remains of these two New Zealanders were able to be returned to their home countries:

The remains of two New Zealand servicemembers who died in South Korea shortly after hostilities ended on the peninsula finally began their journey home Friday.

Army driver Herbert Hunn, 24, and navy telegraphist Peter Mollison, 19, were brought aboard a New Zealand Air Force jet after a repatriation ceremony at Osan Air Base’s passenger terminal. The pair were to be returned to family members Sunday at Royal New Zealand Air Base Auckland.

“These two men beside me were not killed in combat and in fact died after the armistice agreement,” New Zealand Ambassador to South Korea Philip Turner said during the ceremony. “They were part of New Zealand and the international community’s commitment to security here.”

Both Hunn, who died in a vehicle accident in 1955, and Mollison who succumbed to meningitis in 1957, had been interred at a United Nations cemetery in Busan.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

It is pretty amazing how long it takes to identify these remains, but the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to get these remains identified:

South Korea on Monday held a solemn ceremony marking the repatriation of the remains of 64 soldiers who were killed in North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War.

President Moon Jae-in presided over the repatriation ceremony at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, 40 kilometers south of Seoul, with the attendance of top military and government officials and religious leaders, including Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo and U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Vincent Brooks.

Escorted by a fleet of F-15K and FA-50 fighter jets, the remains arrived at Seoul Air Base on Sunday afternoon aboard a South Korea Air Force transport plane from Hawaii.

In Hawaii on Friday, the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency handed them over to Seoul’s Vice Defense Minister Suh Choo-suk. POW stands for Prisoner of War, and MIA means Missing in Action.

The remains were found during a joint excavation project between the United States and North Korea in major Korean War battle zones in the communist state, such as Changjin, South Hamgyong Province. The project was conducted from 1996-2005  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

One family has had the remains of their father who died in the Korean War identified:

On Friday, brothers Charles and Larry McDaniel ascended the Punchbowl Cemetery’s monument displaying the names of roughly 24,000 servicemembers who remain missing from the Korean War and the Pacific theater of World War II.

They climbed up scaffolding to reach the spot where their father’s name, Charles McDaniel, Sr., is inscribed in stone and placed a bronze rosette next to his name, indicating he is missing no more.

During an earlier ceremony at the cemetery observing the annual National POW/MIA Recognition Day, Charles McDaniel, Jr., told an audience of 300 how the remains of his father were suddenly and dramatically found.

When North Korea turned over 55 boxes possibly holding the remains of Americans who died in the Korean War in July, McDaniel greeted the news with caution.

He was three and a half when he last saw his father, who was declared missing in action on Nov. 2, 1950, during the Korean War.

The elder McDaniel, who was a medic, was one of more than 5,000 American servicemembers whose remains are believed to be in North Korea.

“So I figured, 55 sets of remains: 1 percent chance or less” his father’s remains would be among them, McDaniel said. “You kind of push it back, like you have to with grief.”  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but their father was one of the remains recently returned by North Korea.