US Anti-DPRK Policy Hampers Search for War Dead: Spokesman

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, October 14, 2002

US Anti-DPRK Policy Hampers Search for War Dead: Spokesman

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The US administration's anti-DPRK policy has hampered the search for the remains of US soldiers who died during the Korean War, a spokesman for the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People's Army (KPA) said.

In an interview released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sunday, the spokesman said on Saturday that two rounds ofexhumation were carried out from July 20 to September 24 this year,and the third round is under way.

The DPRK and the US have reached an agreement on searching theUS war dead in the Korean War in Bangkok last June. Under the agreement, the two sides would set up a 28-member team and carry out three exhumations from July 20 to October 29.

The DPRK side has handed a total of 378 bodies to the US side since 1990, the KPA spokesman said. But Washington claimed that 8,100 US soldiers were still missing since that the war which ended in 1953.

Despite the efforts by the DPRK side, however, "the US administration's hostile policy toward the DPRK has touched off bitterer anti-US sentiment among the Korean people, which seriously impedes the exhumation of remains of the war dead, "the spokesman said.

Washington adopted a hard-line policy toward Pyongyang since President George W.Bush took office in January 2001. Bush labeled DPRK as a "sponsor of terrorism" and "axis of evil" along with Iran and Iraq.

US special envoy James Kelly, Assistant Secretary of State forEast Asian and Pacific Affairs, visited Pyongyang from October 3 to 5. He was the most senior US official to come to the DPRK sinceformer US Secretary of State Madeline Albright's ice-breaking tourin October 2000. However, Kelly went away without any substantial improvement in bilateral relations.

"If the US side is really interested in the exhumation of remains of the war dead, it should sincerely do what it has to do," the spokesman said.

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