North Korea Returns Remains of Korean War Dead to US

 

North Korea has returned to the United States more than 55 sets of human remains¹.

The remains are believed to be of Americans killed during the Korean War in North Korea.

A special ceremony was held at Osan Airbase in South Korea to mark the return.

The 55 boxes fulfill² a promise, after some delay, by North Korea’s leader to U.S. President Donald Trump³ during their meeting in Singapore on June 12.

Identifying remains will take time

An unidentified U.S. defense⁴ official, however, said there was only one set of military identification tags, known as dog tags, with the remains.

The official spoke⁵ to the Associated Press on the condition that the person would not be identified. The defense official said, “It could take months, or even years to identify them.”

North Korea has provided very little information to help identify the remains, a defense official told VOA.

It could be difficult to find out if the remains are even American military members.

Troops from 16 other United Nations member countries fought with the U.S. during the war. Service members from countries including Australia, Belgium, France and the Philippines also have not been recovered from North Korea.

Last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the return of the 55 boxes was a good step but not a guarantee that the bones are American. “We don’t know who’s in those boxes,” Mattis said.

The U.S. Defense Department estimates that about 7,700 American service members were missing during the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. About 5,300 were believed to be on North Korean soil. Many were placed in shallow burials on battlefields.

Efforts to recover remains in North Korea have faced political and other barriers. Between 1990 and 1994, North Korea returned 208 containers to the U.S. with remains. But examination showed that the remains were from more than 208 individuals. Of those, 181 have been identified.

Also, between 1996 and 2005, U.S.-North Korea joint⁶ efforts resulted in the recovery of 229 containers of remains. The Defense Department said 153 individuals have been identified.

The U.S. official who discussed the recently returned bones said the U.S. is considering including South Korea in future searches for remains in North Korea.

Richard Downes’ father is one of the Korean War missing. He said that hopefully the most recent set of remains will lead to more information about those who are missing.

I’m Mario Ritter.

Words in This Story

tag –n. a piece of material: metal or cloth, that has identifying information on it

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 fulfill   

vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意

参考例句：

• If you make a promise you should fulfill it.如果你许诺了，你就要履行你的诺言。
• This company should be able to fulfill our requirements.这家公司应该能够满足我们的要求。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。