Recovery of U.S. human remains from the Korean War

[11] After the Korean Armistice, in 1954, North Korea returned the remains of more than 3,000 Americans in what was termed Operation Glory.

[10] The remains of all of these "unknown soldiers" were treated with formaldehyde, which, in later decades, made their identification through DNA testing difficult.

[10] Every year since 1993, the DPAA has provided a briefing to the families of the missing or unaccounted for from the Korean War to update them on the status of search and identification efforts.

The DPAA has focused on using advances in technology and DNA science to begin to identify the more than 800 remains that were buried as "Korea Unknowns."

[13] In 2007, North Korea sent home the remains of another seven US troops, at the time of the visit of an unofficial US delegation headed by US politician Bill Richardson.

[10] In the Singapore Summit in 2018, US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un of North Korea committed "to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified".

[15] The North Korean authorities reported to the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency that they couldn't be sure how many individuals were represented in the 55 boxes.

[24] Also in 2018, the Korean War Identification Project received approval to disinter all the remaining unknowns from the Punchbowl in phases to try to identify them.

Phase 5 was scheduled to begin on 6 November 2023, and includes 40 unknown remains recovered from the Seoul area (DPAA).

[26] On 22 February 2023, the second US-South Korean Joint repatriation service was held: U.S. received from South Korea the remains of 1 U.S.

The DPAA collaboratively worked with the South Korean Ministry of National Defense Agency for KIA Recovery and Identification (MAKRI) to analyze and identify remains.

[13] The DPAA continues to announce identified remains based on the work of the Korean War Identification Project.