Return of remains from N. Korea stalls

Issue might be negotiated during summit next year

WASHINGTON — Months after the White House raised hopes for bringing home thousands of U.S. battlefield remains from North Korea, the returns have stalled. Detailed negotiations on future recovery arrangements have not even begun.

The slower pace appears to be linked to the more-publicized stalemate over North Korea’s nuclear weapons .

At a June meeting with President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un committed to “work toward” the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and to cooperate in recovering U.S. war remains. Neither issue is said to be explicitly dependent on the other, and in August, the North turned over 55 boxes of remains, with expectations of more to come soon. But progress then slowed, as has the nuclear diplomacy.

Trump has said he likely will have a second summit with Kim in January or February, and while the nuclear issue would be the central focus, some believe a second meeting is the best chance to restore momentum to the remains recovery effort.

“It is easy to wonder if that isn’t what everyone is waiting on to happen,” said Richard Downes, executive director of the Coalition of Families of Korean War and Cold War POW/MIAs, which advocates for a full accounting of the missing.

Kelly McKeague, head of the Pentagon agency responsible for worldwide efforts to account for U.S. service members, said in September that he hoped to begin negotiations with North Korea by the end of October on terms for resuming recovery missions in spring 2019.

McKeague’s agency has detailed knowledge of locations of U.S. But to travel to these locations and undertake excavations, the U.S. needs North Korea’s cooperation. In the past, this has meant providing millions of dollars’ worth of vehicles and fuel and other forms of support.

A McKeague spokesman, Charles Prichard, said Wednesday that no formal negotiations have begun. He said McKeague believes that “in the foreseeable future” North Korean Army officers and members of his agency will meet to set up negotiations on “the finer details” of future recovery operations. An initial North Korean proposal last summer was rejected by the U.S. as including unreasonable demands.