News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Nine Possible US MIA Remains Returned

Date: August 17, 2001

"Remains Believed to Be U.S. MIAs to Leave N. Korea

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Remains believed to be those of nine U.S. soldiers missing in action from the 1950-53 Korean War will be flown to Yokota Air Base in Japan from Pyongyang next week, the Pentagon said on Friday.

The remains, which will arrive on Tuesday and then be transported to Hawaii for forensic identification, were recovered last month by a joint U.S.-North Korean team operating in Usan and Kujang counties and along the Chong Chon River, north of the capital.

The area was the site of battles between communist forces and the U.S. Army's 2nd and 25th Infantry Divisions in November 1950.

This year's schedule of joint search operations is the most ambitious negotiated between Washington and Pyongyang in recent years. Ten separate search operations will be conducted during the year, including some near the Chosin Reservoir.

Twenty-three such searches have been conducted in North Korea since 1996, yielding 127 sets of remains believed to be those of U.S. soldiers. Eight have been positively identified and returned to their families for burial. Another 10 are nearing the final stages of the process at the Army's forensic identification laboratory in Hawaii.

More than 8,100 U.S. military personnel are still missing from the Korean War."