North Korea’s military said yesterday it would stop preserving the remains of US servicemen killed in the 1950-1953 war unless Washington rejoins efforts to recover them.
The US will be wholly responsible if “thousands of US remains buried in our country are washed off and lost” since it has turned a humanitarian issue into a political problem, Pyongyang said in a statement on the official news agency.
The US Department of Defense says 8,031 Americans are unaccounted for following the Korean conflict.
Joint US-North Korean search teams, in 33 missions from 1996 to 2005, recovered the probable remains of 229 of them.
Washington has rebuffed North Korea’s offer to reopen talks on finding the missing, however, saying it must first return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks.
The North’s military said it has no obligation to recover US remains, which were “the mark of the towering grudge of our people,” but it was willing to help for humanitarian reasons.
However, it said that if Washington refused to cooperate for “a groundless political reason,” then Pyongyang would also halt its efforts.
“Though lots of US remains are being dug out and scattered here and there in our country, our side will no longer be concerned about it,” the statement said.
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