The US said on Friday it reached a deal with North Korea to resume searches for remains of Americans killed in the Korean War, after a six-year break in one of the enemy nations’ only means of contact.
The accord suggested a slight easing of tensions as North Korea and the US prepared to hold a second round of rare direct talks in Geneva starting tomorrow on how to revive six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.
After three days of meetings in Bangkok, the Pentagon said that officials from the US and North Korea “reached an arrangement to resume recovering the remains of American servicemen missing from the Korean War.”
Photo: AFP
US teams are due to start recovery efforts next year in an area about 100km north of Pyongyang and near the Chosin-Jangjin reservoir where more than 2,000 soldiers and Marines are believed to have gone missing during the 1950-1953 war, the Pentagon said.
The US Defense Department said that accounting for missing soldiers was “a stand-alone humanitarian matter, not tied to any other issue between the two countries.”
The searches were suspended under former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2005 amid a crisis over North Korea’s nuclear program, with US officials citing concerns for the safety of Americans involved in the recovery operations.
The Pentagon said it had -concluded arrangements with North Korea that would “ensure the effectiveness and safety” of teams heading into the isolated and impoverished nation.
Pentagon officials said that the US would not pay for the remains, but acknowledged that the teams would inevitably spend money for necessities such as food, fuel and security.
A total of 7,988 Americans are missing from the Korean War, with about 5,500 of them believed to be in North Korea, according to the US Defense Department. Joint search teams recovered the probable remains of 229 servicemen in North Korea from the start of operations in 1996 until they were suspended nine years later.
The Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, and the North has had tense relations with the US ever since.
US President Barack Obama’s administration has stood firm that North Korea must clearly recommit to a 2005 agreement in which it agreed to end its nuclear program and ease tensions with South Korea.
After ruling out dialogue for months, US officials met with North Korean envoys in July in New York. The administration agreed to the second round in Geneva, but said it was premature to return to full-fledged six-nation talks.
“They seem to be open to continuing the discussions, so we are pursuing those,” US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in an interview on Thursday in Kabul with Fox News. “But I think that it’s always important for us to hold the North Koreans accountable. There are certain steps we expect them to take, but if they are willing to be open to conversation with us and with the South Koreans, we will respond.”
US officials have privately voiced doubts about whether the talks in Geneva would yield much progress, but have hoped that the dialogue will lower the chances of provocation by Pyongyang.
Last year, North Korea shelled a South Korean border island, killing four, and was accused of -sinking a warship, leaving 46 sailors dead.
US advocates for engagement with North Korea have long sought a resumption of remains recovery operations, seeing them as one of the few ways to foster better understanding between the two countries.
Searches “will open a direct channel of communication with the Korean People’s Army, and will return US soldiers to the battlegrounds of North Korea on a solemn mission to ensure that no American is left behind,” US Senator John Kerry wrote in June in the Los Angeles Times.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was