WASHINGTON -- The United States on Thursday returned 64 sets of remains of South Korean troops killed in the 1950-53 Korean War and jointly recovered in North Korea decades later.
The remains were handed over to South Korea during a ceremony held by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in Hawaii.
The agency said that the remains were found during joint recovery operations in North Korea between 1996 and 2005, and identified as South Korean in a joint forensic review conducted over the past month.
United Nations Command officers salute a coffin during a 2009 repatriation ceremony (AFP)
Speaking during the ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, US Navy Rear Adm. Jon Kreitz, deputy director of the DPAA, said the allies' joint recovery and identification of missing troops was a "strong testament of our shared values."
He also noted that Thursday marked two months since North Korea returned 55 sets of presumed American troops' remains to the US as part of an agreement reached by US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at their Singapore summit in June.
The South Korean remains have not been identified individually.
The agency said it is the largest transfer of remains between South Korea and the US, with the last repatriation occurring in 2012, when the US returned 12 sets of remains to South Korea.
South Korea's Vice Defense Minister Suh Choo-suk attended Thursday's ceremony to accept the remains. (Yonhap)
