US, NK to Meet on Remains of MIAs
2003-07-04
U.S. and North Korean officials may be able to meet as early as next week to reopen talks on recovering the remains of American soldiers missing from the 1950-1953 Korean War, the Yonhap News Agency reported quoting a U.S. official.
Larry Greer, spokesman for the Defense Department's POW-MIA affairs, told Radio Free Asia that North Korea's U.N. mission has agreed to hold talks in Bangkok.
The discussions will include the locations for the search, the schedule and needed equipment, Greer said.
North Korea said Wednesday that it was ready to meet U.S. officials to discuss the "humanitarian issue." The recovery operations in North Korea, which began in 1996, were suspended last year because of the nuclear tension.
The Pentagon lists some 8,100 American servicemen as missing in action from the Korean War. A total of 178 remains have been recovered in 25 searches since 1996, and 13 of them have been identified as U.S. soldiers.
Greer emphasized that the United States will not reward North Korea for agreeing to the search and that it will stop all negotiations should North Korea try to bring up issues irrelevant to the search.
Pyongyang and Washington are at odds over the North's nuclear ambitions. The dispute intensified after U.S. officials said in October that North Korea admitted having a secret nuclear weapons program.
Source : www.korea.net
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