thedrifter
11-12-07, 01:14 PM
Pentagon identifies remains from North Korea as U.S. soldier missing from Korean War
By: ROBERT BURNS - Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon announced Friday that human remains provided to U.S. authorities by the North Korean government have been identified as a soldier missing from the Korean War.
It was the first set of war remains among six turned over by the North Koreans last April to be officially identified. And it marks the latest in a string of positive developments in the U.S.-North Korean relationship, which has been dominated for years by tension over North Korea's nuclear program.
Earlier this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed satisfaction with the scope and pace of North Korea's cooperation in disabling major facilities at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex.
And on Thursday the government in Pyongyang expressed rare gratitude for U.S. help in ending a high-seas standoff with Somali pirates. The Navy came to the aid of the North Korean cargo ship Dai Hong Dan, whose crew overpowered the pirates in a bloody battle. After the crew regained control, U.S. sailors boarded it at the North Koreans' invitation to treat wounded sailors and hijackers.
The United States intervened on South Korea's side when the North Korean army invaded in June 1950; an armistice ending the fighting was arranged in July 1953 but no peace treaty was signed.
In its announcement Friday, the Pentagon did not thank the North Koreans for turning over the war remains. A spokesman, however, said the gesture appeared to honor a U.S. request made in 2005 that any remains that North Korea happened to uncover should be handled with special care.
In May 2005 the Bush administration abruptly ended years of cooperative arrangements with the North Koreans in which U.S. specialists hunted for, excavated and repatriated remains from areas of North Korea where U.S. soldiers and Marines were killed but not recovered during the 1950-53 war.
Since then, the only U.S. remains to be returned were the six that North Korea gave to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Anthony Principi, a former secretary of veterans affairs, when they visited Pyongyang last April to press the North to follow through on its promise to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs.
Larry Greer, the spokesman, said the six sets of remains appeared to have been handled carefully by the North Koreans, who said they came upon them at a construction project near Unsan in November 2006.
The remains were identified as those of Army Cpl. Clem R. Boody, of Independence, Iowa, Greer said.
Boody was assigned to Headquarters Company, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, which suffered horrendous losses in the Unsan area in November 1950 during a series of surprise attacks by Chinese forces that slipped into North Korea and turned back advancing U.S. Army and Marine forces.
On Nov. 1, 1950, parts of two Chinese army divisions struck the 1st Cavalry Division's lines near Unsan, collapsing the defensive perimeter and forcing a withdrawal by the Americans. Boody was reported missing in action the next day and was one of more than 350 soldiers listed as missing from that battle.
More than 8,000 U.S. servicemen are still listed as missing from the Korean War.
On the Net:
Defense Department at http://www.defenselink.mil
Defense Prisoner of War office at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/
Ellie
By: ROBERT BURNS - Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon announced Friday that human remains provided to U.S. authorities by the North Korean government have been identified as a soldier missing from the Korean War.
It was the first set of war remains among six turned over by the North Koreans last April to be officially identified. And it marks the latest in a string of positive developments in the U.S.-North Korean relationship, which has been dominated for years by tension over North Korea's nuclear program.
Earlier this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed satisfaction with the scope and pace of North Korea's cooperation in disabling major facilities at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex.
And on Thursday the government in Pyongyang expressed rare gratitude for U.S. help in ending a high-seas standoff with Somali pirates. The Navy came to the aid of the North Korean cargo ship Dai Hong Dan, whose crew overpowered the pirates in a bloody battle. After the crew regained control, U.S. sailors boarded it at the North Koreans' invitation to treat wounded sailors and hijackers.
The United States intervened on South Korea's side when the North Korean army invaded in June 1950; an armistice ending the fighting was arranged in July 1953 but no peace treaty was signed.
In its announcement Friday, the Pentagon did not thank the North Koreans for turning over the war remains. A spokesman, however, said the gesture appeared to honor a U.S. request made in 2005 that any remains that North Korea happened to uncover should be handled with special care.
In May 2005 the Bush administration abruptly ended years of cooperative arrangements with the North Koreans in which U.S. specialists hunted for, excavated and repatriated remains from areas of North Korea where U.S. soldiers and Marines were killed but not recovered during the 1950-53 war.
Since then, the only U.S. remains to be returned were the six that North Korea gave to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Anthony Principi, a former secretary of veterans affairs, when they visited Pyongyang last April to press the North to follow through on its promise to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs.
Larry Greer, the spokesman, said the six sets of remains appeared to have been handled carefully by the North Koreans, who said they came upon them at a construction project near Unsan in November 2006.
The remains were identified as those of Army Cpl. Clem R. Boody, of Independence, Iowa, Greer said.
Boody was assigned to Headquarters Company, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, which suffered horrendous losses in the Unsan area in November 1950 during a series of surprise attacks by Chinese forces that slipped into North Korea and turned back advancing U.S. Army and Marine forces.
On Nov. 1, 1950, parts of two Chinese army divisions struck the 1st Cavalry Division's lines near Unsan, collapsing the defensive perimeter and forcing a withdrawal by the Americans. Boody was reported missing in action the next day and was one of more than 350 soldiers listed as missing from that battle.
More than 8,000 U.S. servicemen are still listed as missing from the Korean War.
On the Net:
Defense Department at http://www.defenselink.mil
Defense Prisoner of War office at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/
Ellie