The Department of Defense announced today that U.S. and North Korea representatives concluded talks in Bangkok about arrangements to conduct joint operations aimed at recovering the remains of American servicemen still missing from the Korean War.

 

The operations are scheduled to take place later this year in Unsan County, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang; and near the Chosin Reservoir in the northeast part of North Korea.

 

The meetings, led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Affairs Jerry Jennings, were held in Bangkok, Thailand, July 10-11, 2003.  Jennings focused on enhancing the safety of the U.S. recovery teams and improving the U.S. remains recovery process.

 

As a matter of policy, remains recovery talks deal exclusively with the issue of recovering the remains of missing Americans.  POW/MIA accounting is a separate, stand-alone humanitarian matter, not tied to any other issue.

 

The two countries will meet again in November to plan for operations in 2004 to continue this humanitarian mission.

 

Since 1996, American and North Korean teams working in North Korea have recovered the remains of more than 170 servicemembers.  These teams have operated north of Pyongyang and at the Chosin Reservoir in the northeast area of the country.

 

More than 8,100 Americans are still missing from the Korean War.