N Korea confirms resumption of U.S. soldiers remains recovery effort

   North Korea's official news media confirmed Friday that the communist country has resumed joint efforts to recover the remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War.

   The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) citing a spokesman for the country's armed forces said North Korea and the United States agreed to resume searching for remains of American soldiers in 2012 following bilateral talks held last month in Bangkok.

   "The DPRK side re-clarified the invariable humanitarian stand of the Korean People's Army and the U.S. side admitted that it unilaterally suspended the excavation of GIs' remains, a project that had been successfully under way for the past decade, to serve its political purposes and assured that it would never abuse the project again," the news agency claimed.

   The DPRK is the acronym of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

   It added that broad discussion on the agenda items of mutual concern including bilateral humanitarian issues were touched on at the talks held in the Thai capital.

   The confirmation comes weeks after the U.S. Defense Department announced that teams will work in two areas in North Korea to find remains of soldiers missing since the war.

   The areas to be checked are Unsan County, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang, and near the Chosin/Jangjin Reservoir where more than 2,000 soldiers and Marines are believed to be missing.

   The arrangement covers details on logistics and matters that will ensure the effectiveness and safety of remains and the recovery teams operating in North Korea.

   The U.S. halted recovery work in 2005 due to increased tensions on the peninsula.

  There are about 7,900 U.S. servicemen still unaccounted for from the Korean War, and 5,500 of them are estimated to be missing in North Korea, according to data.

   U.S. specialists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command conducted operations in that country for a decade starting in 1996.

(Yonhap News)