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Remains of MIA since Korean War handed over to US military

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November 12, 2000 

TOKYO (AP) - Remains believed to be those of 15 U.N. Command soldiers missing in action since the Korean War were flown to Japan and honored in a military ceremony Saturday.

To the drone of a lone bagpiper playing "Amazing Grace," a U.N. honor guard removed the caskets from the plane that flew them to the U.S. Yokota Air Base in Tokyo from Pyongyang in North Korea, said U.S. Forces Japan spokeswoman Master Sgt. Eudith Rodney.

Elderly U.S. war veterans attending the ceremony wept after the caskets - draped in the U.N. emblem - emerged from the aircraft, she said. The event was scheduled to coincide with Veterans Day, observed Saturday in the United States.

Saturday's event, marking the fifth and final operation with North Korea this year, was another sign of improved relations between the former Cold War foes. It was the largest repatriation this year.

The two nations began the exhumations four years ago. More than 50 sets of remains have been recovered, several of which have been identified and returned to families.

Charles W. Jones, a representative from the U.S. Pentagon Missing Personnel Office, in Tokyo lauded the North Korean government for its cooperation in the return of the remains, said Rodney.

The remains will be taken to an Army laboratory in Hawaii for identification and would afterward be returned to families, Rodney said.

Only years after North Korea in 1998 test-fired a missile over Japan - a thinly veiled threat to U.S. troops stationed in Northeast Asia - Washington and Pyongyang are now taking halting steps to end a half-century of hostility.

Late last month, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in two-day talks met with North Korean supreme leader Kim Il Jong and other North Korean officials, the first visit by a top-level U.S. official to the communist nation since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Despite the return of the fallen soldiers and other displays of goodwill, experts say more time is needed.

North Korea's missile-building and export program, its past support for terrorism and its massive armies stand as impediments to a quick rapprochement.