U.S. calls N. Korean terms ‘out of sorts’ in recovery of war dead

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is poised to begin recovering the remains of more American troops killed in North Korea as soon as next spring, but U.S. officials are still negotiating the terms after Pyongyang made several unreasonable requests, a senior U.S. defense official said.

The requests included a large sum of money, eight ambulances and other items, said Kelly McKeague, director of the Defense Department agency collecting the remains of U.S. prisoners of war and U.S. troops who went missing in action.

The operations would be carried out jointly with North Korean troops and mark a new form of progress between the nations that the Trump administration can tout while attempting to negotiate North Korea’s denuclearization.

The repatriation effort, bogged down by years of mistrust on both sides, took a turn in July when North Korean officials turned over 55 cases of remains to U.S. officials. That marked one of the first concrete wins following President Donald Trump’s June summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore.

McKeague described North Korea’s most recent repatriation proposal as “out of sorts” but sounded a note of optimism that a deal will be reached. However, ambulances are not necessary because the United States deploys medics as part of the missions.

“We have medics on station,” he said. “So, that would be something we would push back and say, ‘Not possible.’ ”

The Pentagon has sent North Korea at least $22 million since 1990 while recovering 629 remains, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency that McKeague leads. Defense officials said they are willing to reimburse North Korea for costs associated with recovery but will not pay for remains themselves.

The repatriation talks began after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo allowed the Pentagon to pursue discussions with North Korean officials, McKeague said. The recovery agency reached out to North Korea’s mission at the United Nations in New York, and hopes to meet with North Korean officials in a neutral third-party country in October.

The Pentagon believes the remains of 5,300 service members are still in North Korea. A “mishmash of bones” were in the cases of remains recovered in July, McKeague said, and they ultimately could belong to significantly more than 55 people.

The military was able to identify the remains of the first two quickly because their skulls and clavicles were present, he said.

Trump tweeted that the soldiers are Army Master Sgt. Charles H. McDaniel, then 32, of Indiana, and Army Pfc. William H. Jones, then 19, of North Carolina.