55 remains of American servicemembers killed in North Korea returned
- 6 years ago
It was one of the promises made at the summit in Singapore last month,… and North Korea seems to be following through on its promise today.
With today marking the anniversary of the signing the armistice agreement,… North Korea is said to be sending back the remains of the American war dead.
For more on this we go live to our Lee Ji-won standing by at Seoul’s foreign ministry.
Ji-won, what do we know so far on this?
Ji-yoon, 55 cases believed to contain the remains of American soliders killed on the northern side of the Korean Peninsula during the war have been returned, after over 60 years.
Just an hour ago, the U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft containing the remains touched down at Osan Air Base in South Korea from North Korea's Wonsan.
The 55 caskets draped in UN flags... were carried out of the plane and loaded onto vans by service members from UN Command.
A White House statement said that a formal repatriation ceremony will be held at Osan on August 1st.
Some 1-thousand U.S. servicemembers, officials and their families were at the site today, watching the arrival of the fallen heroes.
Now, in the next five days or so, a team of American forensic specialists will do an in-depth examination of the remains,... looking for any identification like dog tags or uniforms.
Then the remains will be flown to Hawaii for DNA identification, which will take months.
Ji-won, this was one of the agreements reached at the June 12th summit between the leaders of North Korea, and the United States,... and how is the White House reacting to this?
Ji-yoon, this is the first time remains have been repatriated since 2007 and so it holds a lot of meaning.
And on the statement the White House released, it said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fulfilled part of the commitment he made to the President Donald Trump on returning the fallen American service members.
It said that the U.S. is encouraged by Pyonyang's actions and the momentum for positive change,... and that today's actions represent a significant first step to recommence the repatriation of remains from North Korea and to resume field operations there to search for Americans who have not yet returned home.
Since the 1990s, an estimated 635 sets of remains have been sent back from the North but over 5-thousand are still there.
That's all from me, but I'll be back with more updates in our later newscast.
With today marking the anniversary of the signing the armistice agreement,… North Korea is said to be sending back the remains of the American war dead.
For more on this we go live to our Lee Ji-won standing by at Seoul’s foreign ministry.
Ji-won, what do we know so far on this?
Ji-yoon, 55 cases believed to contain the remains of American soliders killed on the northern side of the Korean Peninsula during the war have been returned, after over 60 years.
Just an hour ago, the U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft containing the remains touched down at Osan Air Base in South Korea from North Korea's Wonsan.
The 55 caskets draped in UN flags... were carried out of the plane and loaded onto vans by service members from UN Command.
A White House statement said that a formal repatriation ceremony will be held at Osan on August 1st.
Some 1-thousand U.S. servicemembers, officials and their families were at the site today, watching the arrival of the fallen heroes.
Now, in the next five days or so, a team of American forensic specialists will do an in-depth examination of the remains,... looking for any identification like dog tags or uniforms.
Then the remains will be flown to Hawaii for DNA identification, which will take months.
Ji-won, this was one of the agreements reached at the June 12th summit between the leaders of North Korea, and the United States,... and how is the White House reacting to this?
Ji-yoon, this is the first time remains have been repatriated since 2007 and so it holds a lot of meaning.
And on the statement the White House released, it said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fulfilled part of the commitment he made to the President Donald Trump on returning the fallen American service members.
It said that the U.S. is encouraged by Pyonyang's actions and the momentum for positive change,... and that today's actions represent a significant first step to recommence the repatriation of remains from North Korea and to resume field operations there to search for Americans who have not yet returned home.
Since the 1990s, an estimated 635 sets of remains have been sent back from the North but over 5-thousand are still there.
That's all from me, but I'll be back with more updates in our later newscast.