Hopes rise for relatives of missing U.S. servicemen in Korean War

From All Headline News: Hopes rise for relatives of missing U.S. servicemen in Korean War

There was another flicker of hope lighted this week for the relatives of missing Americans in the Korean War as the U.S. Department of Defense restarted negotiations with North Koreans in Bangkok, the Pentagon officials confirmed to journalists.

Confirming that the meeting took place in Bangkok on Tuesday, the Pentagon in an email to the journalists expanded, “We are making arrangements for discussions with the North Korean government to address the many issues associated with how and when to resume remains recovery operations.”

In May 2005, Washington decided to suspend the recovery efforts after expressing concerns over the safety of its search teams and deteriorating relations as North Korea pursued nuclear ambitions.

Asked to comment on the reasons for resuming recovery efforts in North Korea now, the Pentagon said, “DPRK officials contacted the Department of Defense saying that they would look favorably on a request from the United States to discuss remains recovery operations. Because of their overture, we believe our personnel can safely perform these operations in North Korea.”

The United States would not pay the DPRK for any remains recovered, the Pentagon said, “As a longstanding matter of policy, we do not pay for remains.”

The Pentagon, however said that there would be, “associated expenses for which the U.S. is responsible,” listing those as for, “laborers, fuel, food, transportation, water, security.”

“Such expenses are predictable, though costs may vary depending on the locale,” the Pentagon said but did not have a figure to quote, saying, “Since the U.S. has not entered into negotiations with the DPRK, it would be premature to speculate on any numbers.”

Calling the negotiations a DoD issue, Mark Toner, the State Department spokesman told journalists, “There is a State Department official who’s part of that delegation, as is per usual, I don’t have any more to add on that.”

In addition to the State Department official, the negotiation team included representatives from the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, the Joint POW/MIA (Missing in Action) Accounting Command, the U.S. Pacific Command and the United Nations Command-Korea.

“The Department is actively trying to locate, recover and identify our missing personnel from all past wars from World War II forward,” said the Pentagon, adding, “There are 7,988 U.S. servicemen are still unaccounted for from the Korean War; of which, we estimate 5,500 are missing in North Korea. We had always intended to resume these operations.”