By Kim Min-Jeung

The U.S. military's Stars and Stripes reported that North Korea has agreed to hand over as many as 55 sets of U.S. war dead remains killed during the Korean War (1950-1953), allowing the U.S. to fly them out on July 27, which marks the 65th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended active engagement in that war.

A U.S. official told Stars and Stripes on July 17 that the preliminary details emerged after U.S. and North Korean officials held working-level talks on July 15 in the truce village of Panmunjeom.

"North Koreans apparently did not raise other issues or request anything in return," he said.

The U.S. official added that, “North Korea will use our wooden cases for the remains and give them back to us. A U.S. delegation was expected to retrieve the remains in North Korea and fly them out on July 27, either to Osan Air Base in South Korea or to Hawaii."

The last repatriation was in July 2007 when Bill Richardson, who was governor of New Mexico at the time, traveled to Pyeongyang and returned with six sets of remains.

jer2co@korea.kr