NKorea threatens to stop preserving remains of US soldiers.

5/4 Tass 73

PYONGYANG, April 5 (Itar-Tass) - North Korean has criticized the U.S.
administration for attempts to link the return of remains of U.S. soldiers
killed during the 1950-1953 war on the Korean peninsula with the
resumption of six-party talks on denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
The Korean Central News Agency quoted on Monday a statement of the
North Korean military mission as saying that on February 27 and 28 the
North Korean side informed the United States on such remains found in ten
regions of the country. Photos were handed over to a U.S. representative.
However, up till now the USA "has made no steps to return these
remains to their homeland," the statement said. Moreover, it said the U.S.
Department of State has recently refused to begin bilateral talks with
North Korea, including on humanitarian issues, until the six-way talks are
resumed.
In connection with that, the mission stressed that North Korea had
"assumed no commitments to preserve the remains of American soldiers and
officers killing Koreans during the war". It stressed that the United
States is fully responsible for unwillingness to search for them and
return them to the USA, as it "has decided to turn the humanitarian issue
into a political one".
The United States suspended search for remains of its soldiers in May
2005 under the pretext of concerns over security of American military
experts sent to the north of the Korean peninsula. Work of a joint
commission clarifying the fate of American soldiers, launched in 1996, has
been repeatedly suspended in the periods of an aggravation of tensions
between the two counties.
According to American sources, over the past few years search groups
of the USA have found and returned home the remains of 220 U.S. soldiers.
Nevertheless, over 8,000 Americans taking part in that war half-a-century
ago, are still unaccounted for, American experts say.
Efforts to restart the six-party talks, which the North quit one year
ago, appear stalled. As preconditions for returning, the North has
demanded a lifting of UN sanctions and a US commitment to discuss a
permanent peace treaty.
-0-zhe/ast


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