Troopers participate in a struggle stays excavation venture carried out from Oct. 15 to Nov. 28 at White Horse Ridge in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, Monday. Courtesy of the protection ministry
The army has recovered the stays believed to be these of troopers killed through the 1950-53 Korean Conflict at a former battlefield within the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), within the first such excavation work carried out within the space in three years.
In October, the ministry introduced a plan to renew struggle stays excavation at White Horse Ridge in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, in what it referred to as a part of measures to scale back army rigidity between the 2 Koreas. The venture had been halted since 2022.
Following a 40-day search involving troops from South Korea and member states of the U.S.-led U.N. Command, the army recovered the stays of 25 our bodies and 1,962 items of belongings, in keeping with the ministry.
An on-site identification confirmed {that a} majority of the our bodies are these of South Korean troopers killed through the three-year battle, the ministry stated, including it plans to conduct extra detailed checks involving DNA evaluation.
“That is a part of efforts to return to the households… those that fought within the Korean Conflict, in addition to a sensible measure to implement the federal government’s pledge to determine peace within the DMZ,” it added.
Underneath a now-suspended army rigidity discount accord signed in 2018, Seoul and Pyongyang had agreed to launch a joint venture to retrieve stays of troopers killed through the Korean Conflict from former battlefields contained in the DMZ separating the 2 sides.
In 2019, South Korea started work to retrieve the stays at Arrowhead Ridge and later expanded such efforts to White Horse Ridge, however the transfer had been suspended since November 2022 as a consequence of security issues triggered by deteriorating inter-Korean ties.
By way of the excavation works, the army has retrieved the stays of some 500 troopers from the 2 websites, which had been among the many fiercest battlefields through the struggle, the place probably the most casualties had been reported.
The North has not responded to requires joint work.
