U.S. and North Korean officials have found what appear to be the remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, a U.S. military official told Radio Free Asia (RFA).
"It looks like they have already found possible human remains," Army Lieutenant Colonel Jerry O'Hara, spokesman for the U.S. Army Central Investigation Laboratory, told RFA's Korean service. "They are presumed to be of American soldiers."
The remains were found by a joint team of U.S. and North Korean officials and workers, which has been searching two major Korean War battlefields in North Korea--Wunsan and Jangjin--since Aug. 23. O'Hara provided no details and said forensic tests would be necessary to determine the origin of the remains with certainty.
The search was part of a 1996 accord under which North Korea has allowed U.S. officials to search for the remains of thousands of missing U.S. soldiers. The joint teams so far have found about 170 sets of remains but only about a dozen have been positively identified.
The latest remains were found near Jangjin Lake in South Hamgyong Province near the border with China, O'Hare said. The lake, known to American veterans as Chosin, was a venue for fierce fighting during the war. Recovery work in Wunsan, also near the Chinese border, was suspended after an unexploded bomb from the Korean War was found there, O'Hara said.
