 |
| ▲ South Korean troops carry a coffin with the remains of a U.S. soldier killed during the 1950-53 Korean War during a repatriation ceremony at the Seoul National Cemetery in southern Seoul on Feb. 22, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap) |
war remains-US repatriation
S. Korea repatriates remains of U.S. soldier killed during Korean War
SEOUL, Feb. 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Wednesday repatriated the remains of a U.S. soldier killed during the Korean War, seven decades after the end of the three-year conflict.
In October last year, the South Korean defense ministry's excavation team identified the remains discovered earlier as that of a U.S. soldier through joint analysis with the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). It withheld the identity of the fallen soldier.
A ceremony for the remains' return took place at the Seoul National Cemetery in southern Seoul, attended by South Korea's Vice Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul, U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Philip Goldberg and DPAA Director Kelly McKeague.
"The sacrifices our nations shared during the war are the foundation of the values we have shared since the war's end," McKeague said at the ceremony. "Emblematic of our shared values is the steadfast commitment to find, recover and identify those who gave their lives in defense of liberty."
McKeague said that the alliance was made "ironclad" through the blood both sides shed during the war, and reaffirmed that it remains "stronger than ever."
After a three-shot gun salute, South Korean troops passed on a U.N. flag-draped coffin with the soldier's remains to their American counterparts, who loaded it onto a black hearse.
The remains will be transported to the U.S. 8th Army's morgue in Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 65 kilometers south of Seoul, before they are sent to the DPAA's office in Hawaii for further analysis, according to Seoul's defense ministry.
South Korea has repatriated the remains of 26 U.S. soldiers killed during the conflict since 2000, when it launched an excavation project to recover the fallen soldiers.
(END)
(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved
