HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii (AP) - A four-service honor guard lifted three flag-wrapped coffins off a military cargo plane Wednesday, marking the latest recovery effort of Americans lost in the Korean War. Korean War remains
arrive to silent welcome
By Janis Magin
Associated Press WriterThe operations negotiated with North Korea under the Clinton administration have continued despite new strains in U.S. dealings with the communist nation. Four more joint U.S.-North Korean operations are scheduled this year following a series of successful recovery missions last year.
The three coffins were brought off a C-17 cargo plane by an honor guard that had flown with them from Pyongyang and placed on a blue military bus that took them to the nearby Army Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii.
"At this point, we really don't have any idea" of the identity of the remains, said John Webb, deputy director of the laboratory. Of 107 skeletal remains recovered from North Korea since 1996, only eight have been fully identified and given military burials. Ten more are described as being in the final stages of identification.
The latest remains are believed to be those of Americans lost in fighting between communist forces and the U.S. Army's First Calvary Division and the 2nd and 25th Infantry divisions in November 1950.
They were removed from Unsan and Kujang counties in North Korea, along the Chong Chon River about 60 miles north of Pyongyang, by a joint U.S.-North Korean recovery team.
The recovery efforts have been negotiated on an annual basis since 1996. Last year, five operations recovered more than all previous years' activities combined.
The low-level joint activity has continued despite North Korean irritation over the Bush administration's suspension of talks while it conducts a Northeast Asian policy review in consultation with allies South Korea and Japan.
Webb said the remains do not necessarily include complete skeletons and identification, including DNA testing when the possibilities are narrowed down to the smallest number of candidates, could take months or years to complete.
Samples for DNA analysis have been provided by only 25 percent of families of the more than 8,100 soldiers missing from the Korean War, according to the military.
Ceremonies for arrival of the remains included no speeches or special observances. About 100 people, including a handful of Korean War veterans and other civilians, stood silently as the coffins were unloaded and placed aboard the bus.
On the Net: The Pentagon's POW/MIA office at
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/The Army's Korean War page at
http://korea50.army.mil/