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Korea remains: Pyongyang returns US troops slain in Korean War | |
(35 minutes later) | |
North Korea has returned remains believed to be of US troops killed during the Korean War, the latest move in the cautious diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang. | |
A US military aircraft took the remains to an American base in South Korea. | |
This will be welcomed by relatives who have waited decades to be reunited with the remains of their loved ones. | |
The repatriation was agreed at the June summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un. | The repatriation was agreed at the June summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un. |
It comes on the 65th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War. | |
Thousands of US military personnel from the conflict remain unaccounted for and most of them - about 5,300 - were lost in what is now North Korea. | |
It is unclear exactly how many remains have been returned this time, and they will now need to be tested before their eventual return to US soil. | |
'Momentum for change' | |
The White House statement said the US government was "encouraged by North Korea's actions and the momentum for positive change". | |
The US military aircraft took the remains to the Osan base where a repatriation ceremony will be held on 1 August. | |
This repatriation was one of four points actually listed on the June declaration between the US and North Korea and last week US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that repatriations would begin soon. | |
The summit in Singapore, where the leaders agreed to work towards the "complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula", has been criticised for a lack of details on when or how Pyongyang would renounce nuclear weapons. | |
Last week North Korea appeared to begin dismantling part of a key rocket launch site the Sohae station, but some intelligence reports also intimate that Pyongyang may still secretly be continuing its weapons programme. | |
This move will be seen as a concrete step after years of efforts by relatives and US authorities to retrieve the remains. | |
Between 1990 and 2005, 229 sets were returned, but this halted as relations deteriorated with the development of North Korea's nuclear ambitions. |