Tag: war remains

Hopefully forensic investigators can quickly identify who the remains belong to:

 South Korean search crews working in the heavily fortified border area found a skeleton believed to be from an American or French soldier killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, the defense ministry said Monday.
The remains were unearthed Wednesday during an excavation project at the former battleground known as Arrowhead Hill, which is in the Demilitarized Zone that has divided the country since the war ended in an armistice instead of a peace treaty.
The area was cleared of land mines in the fall as part of an inter-Korean agreement reached in efforts to improve relations between the two countries in connection with separate nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

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.

A group of foreigners studying in South Korea pose for a photo during a program to experience the excavation of the remains of soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War on a hill in Paju, north of Seoul, on Oct, 18, 2018, in this photo provided by the defense ministry. (Yonhap)

Park Young-shik (R) receives an identification certificate for his late father, Park Tae-hong, from Lee Hak-ki, head of the defense ministry’s remains excavation and identification task force, during a ceremony in Yangju, east of Seoul, to mark the return of the national hero on Oct. 16, 2018. PFC. Park was killed in action there during the 1950-53 Korean War, and his remains were excavated from a hill in Pohang, 370 km southeast of Seoul in 2009. (Yonhap)

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.

Considering that this soldiers remains were recovered in 1995, in makes me wonder how long it will take DPAA to identify the 52 remains recently returned by North Korea.  Regardless welcome home PFC Joe Elmore:

The remains of a Kentucky soldier who disappeared after a 1950 Korean War battle with high casualties will be returned home for a burial with full military honors.

Army Pfc. Joe S. Elmore’s remains were originally thought to be of a British soldier when they were discovered in North Korea in 1995, but they could not be identified. The remains were later buried in South Korea.

Nearly 20 years later, the remains were disinterred and transported to The Defense Department’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which seeks to identify missing and unidentified American soldiers. The agency used DNA and anthropological analysis to match the remains to Elmore.

Elmore was 20 when he was killed during a battle on Dec. 2, 1950, in Hamgyeong Province, North Korea. He will be given a military funeral in Albany, Kentucky, on Aug. 18.

The POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in a release that Elmore was among about 2,500 U.S. soldiers that were attacked in late November by overwhelming Chinese forces near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.  [SF Gate]

You can read more at the link.

Watching the incredibly moving repatriation ceremony at Osan Air Base. #NeverForgotten. Shout out to @ROK_MND, @USForcesKorea, @dodpaa. Proud to be part of this super team. pic.twitter.com/EAoyt9PcrB

— Harry Harris (@USAmbROK) August 1, 2018

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:

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]

You can read more at the link.

I can only imagine what the bill the Kim regime would demand the US pay to search for war remains within North Korea:

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis acknowledged Friday the Pentagon could send military teams into North Korea to search for the remains.

Pentagon officials previously said North Korea had already excavated about 200 sets of remains of fallen American soldiers. North Korea experts suggested that the regime would want compensation for recovering the remains, which in turn could jeopardize the U.S.-led economic sanctions on North Korea.

After vowing to continue putting ‘maximum pressure’ on the North until it is fully denuclearized, the Trump administration now faces a dilemma as it may have to make a deal with North Korea to continue the excavation work without appearing to make compromises.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.  [KBS World Radio]