North Korea gave only one dog tag for 55 boxes of war remains, US official says

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

North Korea gave only one dog tag for 55 boxes of war remains, US official says

Associated Press in Washington
Tue 31 Jul 2018 21.54 BST

When North Korea handed over 55 boxes of bones that it said are remains of American war dead, it provided just a single military dog tag and no other information that could help US forensics experts determine their individual identities, according to a US defense official.

The official, who discussed previously undisclosed aspects of the remains issue on condition of anonymity, said it probably will take months if not years to fully determine individual identities from the remains, which have not yet been confirmed by US specialists to be those of American servicemen.

The official did not know details about the single dog tag, including the name on it – or whether it was even that of an American military member.

During the Korean war, combat troops of 16 other United Nations member countries fought alongside US service members on behalf of South Korea. Some of them, including Australia, Belgium, France and the Philippines, have yet to recover some of their war dead from North Korea.

The 55 boxes were handed over at Wonsan, North Korea last Friday and flown aboard a US military transport plane to Osan air base in South Korea, where US officials catalogued the contents.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/31/north-korea-war-dead-remains-dog-tag

[soryang]

1. "There is no reason at this point to doubt that they do relate to Korean War losses."

John Byrd an anthropologist at the DPAA says remains appear to be Korean War combatants ...and "are likely American."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/01/asia/north-korea-soldier-remains-intl/index.html

[soryang]

2. Remains from North Korea likely American soldiers who fought at Chosin Reservoir

Remains from North Korea likely American soldiers who fought at Chosin Reservoir
By MEENA VENKATARAMANAN LUIS MARTINEZ

The 55 boxes of human remains North Korea transferred to the United States this week are “consistent” with being American service members who lost their lives in the Korean War, according to the chief scientist at the U.S. Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Location information accompanying the boxes suggested most of the remains are those of U.S. Army soldiers who fought in the famous 1950 Battle of Chosin Reservoir.

Conclusions that the human remains were likely Americans from the Korean War was based on their state of preservation, as well as Korean War-era materials in some boxes that included boots, canteens, buckles, and buttons, according to Dr. John Byrd, the DPAA's chief scientist who reviewed the contents of the boxes in North Korea.

"Everything we saw was consistent with these remains, indeed, being from the Korean War, and consistent with these remains being good candidates to be missing Americans from the Korean War," said Byrd.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/remains-north-korea-american-soldiers-fought-chosin-reservoir/story?id=56997869