SEOUL, South Korea -- U.S. military officials met with their North Korean counterparts Sunday to discuss the repatriation of the remains of soldiers left after the Korean War ended in 1953.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that the meeting at the peninsula's Demilitarized Zone was "productive and cooperative and resulted in firm commitments." Pompeo was not part of the talks.
Although several details for the transfer of the remains still had to be worked out, there was some agreement about how an initial transfer would proceed, said a U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak about the meeting publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Sunday's talks came three days after North Korean officials failed to attend a scheduled meeting about the remains, leaving their U.S. counterparts waiting at the Demilitarized Zone's Joint Security Area. The State Department later said the North Korean side had been in contact at midday to cancel that meeting Thursday and had suggested rescheduling to Sunday.
The U.S. delegation was led by Maj. Gen. Michael A. Minihan, chief of staff for the U.N. Command, and North Korea's side included a two-star general, the South Korean news agency reported, citing diplomatic sources. The multinational but U.S.-led U.N. Command was formed during the Korean War and now helps maintain the armistice on the peninsula.
Pompeo said they were "the first General Officer-level talks" with North Korea since 2009.
"The North Koreans put a lot of weight on rank and status," said Robert Kelly, a political scientist at South Korea's Pusan National University. "Getting a general symbolizes the importance of negotiating with the North."
Pompeo said U.S. and North Korean officials would begin meeting today to work out the next steps, including the transfer of remains that have already been collected in North Korea. The two sides also agreed to restart efforts to look for the remains of other Americans who never came home.
"Both sides agreed to re-commence field operations in the DPRK to search for the estimated 5,300 Americans who never returned home," Pompeo said. North Korea is officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
About 7,700 U.S. soldiers are listed as missing from the Korean War. Of those, 5,300 are believed to be in North Korea.
Military officials have said they are on alert for the transfer of remains, with prearrangements made -- including the storage of 100 wooden caskets at the Demilitarized Zone.
Experts are speculating that Pyongyang is trying to fast-track discussions on what it considers more critical issues, such as reaching a declaration to formally end the war, which stopped on an armistice and not a peace treaty.
From 1996 to 2005, joint U.S.-North Korea military search teams conducted 33 recovery operations that collected 229 sets of American remains. Efforts then stalled for more than a decade because of tensions over North Korea's nuclear program and a previous U.S. claim that the security arrangement for its personnel working in the North was insufficient.
The last time North Korea turned over remains was in 2007, when Bill Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador and New Mexico governor, secured the return of six sets.
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Information for this article was contributed by Adam Taylor of The Washington Post; and by staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 07/16/2018