A ceremony marking the recovery of remains of South Korean soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War takes place at the headquarters of the Army’s I Corps in Goyang, north of Seoul, on Nov. 28, 2024, in this file photo provided by the unit. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The defense ministry said Tuesday it will seek to recover the remains of more than 200 soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War this year as part of an ongoing project to find and identify missing service members.
Since 2000, the ministry has been working to recover the remains of fallen soldiers of the conflict, with about 90 percent of the 133,192 South Korean troops killed during the war still unaccounted for.
This year, the ministry will seek to excavate 220 sets of remains, identify 25 sets of remains, and collect 12,000 DNA samples from family members of the fallen soldiers to help its identification efforts, it said.
The ministry said about 100 service members will be mobilized daily for excavation projects lasting four to eight weeks, with a total of around 100,000 personnel to be involved in the effort this year.
The ministry’s war remains excavation agency has so far recovered 11,395 sets of remains, identifying 248 of them.
(Yonhap)
