Personnel recovery
October 18, 2011
The US and North Korea have resumed talks in Bangkok, Thailand, on US personnel recovery operations in the isolated north. Major Carie Parker, a spokeswoman for the US Department of Defense, told AFP the talks were expected to last between two and three days. The decision comes as ties have begun to improve after attacks last year blamed on the North killed 50 South Koreans.
The Pentagon said in a statement that the Bangkok negotiations will address a "stand-alone humanitarian matter" and are not linked to other issues, such as the North Korean nuclear program and US-supported international sanctions.
Joint operations
From 1996 to 2005 joint US-North Korean search teams recovered the probable remains of 229 bodies from the North in 33 missions. Government estimates place the number of bodies of missing US military personnel at nearly 8,000, 6,000 of which are still thought to be in North Korea, where the US fought alongside South Korea in the Korean War. Many dead US soldiers were left behind when Chinese forces overran US positions in late 1950.
Recovery operations stopped in 2005 when President George W. Bush’s government voiced concerns for the safety of its personnel as relations soured over North Korea's nuclear program.
Joint recovery missions began in 1996 and are the only form of US-North Korean military cooperation; The US and North Korea have no formal diplomatic ties.
Bilateral ties
Relations between the two hit a low point in 2009, when North Korea walked out of the six-party nuclear disarmament talks, which also involved Russia, China, South Korea and Japan. But ties have been slowly improving since July 2011, when officials from Pyongyang and Washington met in New York to hold a first round of discussions to assess the chances of resuming the negotiations. The talks are to be taken up again next week in Geneva, reports AFP citing the South Korean Yonhap news agency, to coincide with the current recovery talks in Bangkok.
Discussions on an official peace treaty ending the Korean War are expected to be included in the context of the talks in Geneva next week, as reported by AFP. The North has long sought to sign a treaty with the United States to formally end the war which ended with the signing of an armistice in 1953.
Author: Sarah Berning (AP, AFP)
Editor: Grahame Lucas