South Korea returned the body of a North Korean soldier to his homeland through the truce village on Wednesday, the defense ministry said, over one month after the body was swept across the border by floodwaters.

The South retrieved the body near the Peace Dam in Gangwon Province on July 31, just south of the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas.

The United Nations Command (UNC), which oversees the truce agreement, handed the body over to North Korean officials at the truce village of Panmunjom at around 10 a.m., the ministry said. 

The UNC last week offered to arrange the delivery meeting through a loudspeaker at Panmunjom, which was accepted by the North, according to a ministry official. Pyongyang cut a hotline with the UNC in March in response to joint military drills by South Korea and the U.S.

This is the 10th time since 2007 that the South has sent the remains of a North Korean soldier back to the communist country.

The Koreas are still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice agreement, not a peace treaty. (Yonhap News)