Kim Yong-soo was drafted into the army right after the Korean War broke out in June 1950. At the time, he was 18. The student soldier died during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, a fierce 17-day engagement fought in the winter of 1950 between 12,000 U.S. troops and a 120,000-strong Chinese force at a reservoir in northeastern North Korea.

Kim participated in the battle as a member of KATUSA or Korean Augmentation Troops to the United States Army. He was assigned to the U.S. 7th Infantry Division, which, along with the U.S. 1st Marine Division, fought desperately to buy time for the Hungnam evacuation, an operation that evacuated some 100,000 U.N. military and North Korean civilians gathered at the port of Hungnam to the South.

On Friday, more than six decades after death, Kim’s remains were returned home from the North via the United States, along with those of 11 other South Korean soldiers. It was the first repatriation of South Korean war dead since the cease-fire in 1953.

The remains of the 12 patriots could be brought home because they were all KATUSA members. They were recovered by a U.S. excavation team that unearthed the remnants of more than 200 American soldiers in the northern part of North Korea between 2000 and 2004.

The remains were taken to Hawaii and found to be those of Asians through DNA tests. Among the 12 remains, two, including Kim, have been identified through subsequent DNA analysis.

Seoul owes Washington its deepest appreciation for the recovery of the remains. The repatriation should bring home to the government the need to emulate Washington’s recovery efforts. Soldiers who were killed in action are the greatest patriots and should be treated as such. Otherwise few would risk their lives to protect their country.

During the Korean War, some 130,000 South Korean soldiers were killed. Of them the remains of some 30,000 to 40,000 are believed to be in the North or in the Demilitarized Zone.

In 2007, the two Koreas agreed to launch a joint recovery campaign but have since made no serious efforts toward it. The Seoul government needs to revive the agreement.

President Lee Myung-bak said Friday that the first thing the South should do after unification would be to find the remains of the war dead in the North. Why wait until reunification?

The government also needs to step up recovery efforts for the soldiers who died in the South. Since it launched a recovery program in 2000, it has found the remains of some 6,600 soldiers, less than 10 percent of the total.