This undated file photo provided by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission shows remains discovered in a village in Asan, South Chungcheon Province. Yonhap

The national legacy redress commission has identified two civilian victims of massacres committed during the 1950-53 Korean War and returned their remains to the families, the commission said Thursday.

The cases mark the first time the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has identified civilian Korean War massacre victims through remains excavation and DNA analysis since the commission was launched in 2020 for a three-year term, which was extended by one more year.

The commission is responsible for addressing human rights violations committed from the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial control of the country through the country's past authoritarian regimes.

The remains of one of the identified victims were discovered inside an air-raid shelter in the central city of Asan and identified as an individual who, along with many other civilians, was accused of Communist collaboration and killed by police and security units between 1950 and 1951.

The commission identified the remains belonging to a victim surnamed Ha.

This undated file photo provided by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission shows war remains discovered in a village in Asan, South Chungcheon Province. Yonhap

The other remains were found in a village in the central city of Daejeon where about 1,800 members of a leftist organization and inmates were killed by soldiers, police and military police in 1950 during the initial stage of the Korean War.

The commission identified the remains as belonging to an individual, surnamed Koh, who was among the civilians killed at that time.

The two were among some 4,000 suspected civilian victims whose remains have been excavated by the commission, but their exact identities remain unknown.

The commission said that the verification of the exact identities of the two victims was possible because their remains were preserved well enough to extract DNA information, as well as due to clear circumstantial evidence proving them to be massacre victims.

The commission said that it will establish a DNA database involving excavated remains and families of Korean War civilian victims to continue its identification efforts even after the commission's term expires. (Yonhap)