ID :
203400
Thu, 08/25/2011 - 07:21
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/203400
The shortlink copeid
N. Korea Accepts U.S. Request for Talks on Remains Recovery
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea said on Aug. 19 it has accepted a request by the United States for talks on resuming remains recovery for American troops killed during the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korea "affirmatively" accepted the recent U.S. offer from "humanitarianism," a spokesman for the North's Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a comment carried by the country's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The militaries of the two countries are working to arrange the talks, he said, without elaborating.
Nearly 8,000 U.S. service members are listed as missing from the war and the remains of more than half of them are estimated to be buried in the socialist nation.
The U.S. has recovered more than 220 sets of remains since 1996, but it halted joint recovery efforts with North Korea in 2005, citing the safety and security concerns of its workers.
The North announced its latest conciliatory gesture toward the U.S. just hours after Washington offered $900,000 in emergency aid to flood-ravaged North Korea.
The North has recently said it might hold a reunion of Korean-Americans with family members they left behind in the North during the war.
The rare moves came a month after North Korea's senior diplomat met with his American counterpart in rare high-level talks in New York on how to resume long-stalled talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs.
The North has long sought to improve relations with the U.S. and sign a peace treaty to formally end decades of enmity since the war, which ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.
North Korea "affirmatively" accepted the recent U.S. offer from "humanitarianism," a spokesman for the North's Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a comment carried by the country's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The militaries of the two countries are working to arrange the talks, he said, without elaborating.
Nearly 8,000 U.S. service members are listed as missing from the war and the remains of more than half of them are estimated to be buried in the socialist nation.
The U.S. has recovered more than 220 sets of remains since 1996, but it halted joint recovery efforts with North Korea in 2005, citing the safety and security concerns of its workers.
The North announced its latest conciliatory gesture toward the U.S. just hours after Washington offered $900,000 in emergency aid to flood-ravaged North Korea.
The North has recently said it might hold a reunion of Korean-Americans with family members they left behind in the North during the war.
The rare moves came a month after North Korea's senior diplomat met with his American counterpart in rare high-level talks in New York on how to resume long-stalled talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs.
The North has long sought to improve relations with the U.S. and sign a peace treaty to formally end decades of enmity since the war, which ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.
