| The honor guard carries the remains of soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, in an enshrinement ceremony held at the Seoul National Cemetery, Wednesday. / Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
The defense ministry has enshrined 365 sets of remains of those killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, at a national cemetery in Seoul, the ministry said Wednesday.
A group of high-ranking officials, including Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon and Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, participated and paid respect to the fallen soldiers during the event, according to the Ministry of National Defense.
"The defense ministry will continue fulfilling its responsibility and duty to bring back war remains to the bereaved families," the ministry said in a statement.
Most of the remains have been recovered in border areas, such as Cheorwon in Gangwon Province, and Paju in Gyeonggi Province. The defense ministry has teamed up with the Army and the Marine Corps for the war remains excavation project which began this May and continued for eight months.
What is notable is that 12 sets of remains were recovered during the recent inter-Korean joint repatriation project in Arrow Hill, an upland area in Gangwon Province, in the two months since October.
The joint repatriation was part of the inter-Korean military agreement reached in September in Pyongyang. At the end of last month, the two Koreas completed clearing mines in the area to build an inter-Korean road there to kick off the joint excavation of Korean War remains next year.
The ministry expects 200 sets of South Korean war remains to be recovered in the region. A hundred sets of remains from the U.S. and France are also estimated to be buried there, according to the defense ministry.