The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command conduct an honorable carry ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPH-H), Hawaii, Aug. 1, 2018. Carry teams will move fifty-five transfer cases, containing what are believed to be the remains of American service members lost in the Korean War, to the DPAA facility at JBPH-H for identification. North Korea recently turned over the remains to the U.S. and is the first mass turnover of remains since the early '90s. (Photo by Senior Airman Apryl Hall)
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command conduct an honorable carry ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPH-H), Hawaii, Aug. 1, 2018. Carry teams will move fifty-five transfer cases, containing what are believed to be the remains of American service members lost in the Korean War, to the DPAA facility at JBPH-H for identification. North Korea recently turned over the remains to the U.S. and is the first mass turnover of remains since the early '90s. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Mikaley Kline)
Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, United Nations Command commander, along with members of the official party, salute a C-17 Globemaster III carrying 55 cases of remains as it departs Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, Aug. 1, 2018. The UNC repatriated remains from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. (Photo by (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Ilyana A. Escalona) )
United Nations Honor Guard member carries remains during a dignified return ceremony at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, Friday. Members of the command and the Osan community were on hand at the arrival ceremony. (Photo by Sgt. Nicholas Brown-Bell)
United Nations Command returned 55 cases of remains from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, also known as North Korea, to Osan Air Base, July 27, 2018. Members of the command and the Osan community were on hand at the arrival ceremony. (Photo by Tech. Sgt. Ashley Tyler)
The United Nations Command Honor Guard prepares to transfer caskets of remains onto waiting C-17 Globemaster IIIs as members of the 36th Fighter Squadron perform a missing man flyover at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, Aug. 1, 2018. Two C-17s left Osan AB for Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, where members of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency will attempt to identify the remains of the fallen heroes. The UNC repatriated 55 cases of remains from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. (Photo by Senior Airman Kelsey Tucker)
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency provided an update today on the status of identifying the remains transferred in July to the United States from North Korea.
An honorable carry ceremony July 27 at Osan Air Base, South Korea, transferred 55 boxes of remains believed to be of Americans missing in the Korean War. The boxes were received Aug. 1 in an honorable carry ceremony in Hawaii.
“We are guardedly optimistic the 1 August repatriation is the first tangible action of others, with which we will be able to account for more of our missing from the Korean War,” the director of DPAA, Kelly McKeague, said at today’s White House media briefing.
The August repatriation and homecoming was a “poignant manifestation” of the commitment secured by President Donald J. Trump and the pledge by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their June summit in Singapore, he said.
McKeague highlighted the return of a dog tag of Army medic Master Sgt. Charles H. McDaniel. “It was a sole personal effect returned by the North Koreans,” he said, adding that the return of the remains is the first step toward talks to resume joint field recovery operations. The dog tag was returned to McDaniel’s sons.
Joint recovery operations in North Korea were suspended in 2005 due to security concerns by then-President George W. Bush.
Humanitarian Endeavor
McKeague described the recovery effort as a humanitarian endeavor and said he is encouraged that the June summit and North Korea’s reaffirmation to resume recovery operations may lead to further cooperation. He said the contacts are being treated as military-to-military contacts.
The time it will take to match the remains to a service member will be DNA-intensive and take months or years, DPAA lab director John Byrd said.
“At no time did we expect there to be one body, one box. Nor did the North Koreans try to pitch it that way to us when we were in Osan,” Byrd said, citing as an example the return of remains over five years the 1990s.
“Out of those 208 boxes over those five years, we estimated, after DNA sampling, 400 individuals. Now from that, 200 were Americans,” he said.
Initial inspections indicate the recently returned remains are in moderate to poor condition and do not contain any remains of animals, Byrd said.
Sacred Obligation to Recover Missing Americans
There are 7,700 Americans missing from the Korean War, McKeague said.
The DPAA mission is to search for, find and account for missing Defense Department personnel from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War and other recent conflicts. More than 82,000 Americans remain missing from those conflicts, with 34,000 believed to be recoverable, according to DPAA.
“The fact that the United States of America vigorously pursues the fullest possible accounting of our missing reflects our values as a nation,” McKeague said. “The sacred obligation, if not moral imperative, remains a high priority for the Department of Defense.”