North Korea has turned over the potential remains of US... A US military plane made a rare flight into North Korea on Friday to retrieve 55 cases said to contain the remains of US service members missing since the Korean War — a move US officials hailed as a sign of improving relations between the two longtime enemies. The Air Force C-17 left Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, to fly to the coastal North Korean city of Wonsan to pick up the remains before returning to the base on what was the 65th anniversary of the end of hostilities in the war. Troops from different UN countries stood as an honor guard at Osan, as white-gloved troops in different uniforms descended the aircraft’s ramp holding the cases, which were wrapped in the UN flag. The cases were placed in minivans on the runway and will be flown to Hawaii for a repatriation ceremony Wednesday after a ceremony in Seoul. Close to 7,700 US service members remain unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, with about 5,300 lost in North Korea. More than 36,000 Americans died in the war. It was unclear where the Friday’s remains had been stored in North Korea. Radio Free Asia reported that many more may be in the possession of North Koreans who dug up remains at battlefields or found them while farming or excavating and hoped to sell them. It was unclear precisely what the returned boxes contained, with Defense Secretary James Mattis saying some might not be Americans, or even human. “We don’t know who’s in those boxes,” Mattis said. In Hawaii, forensic and DNA testing will be performed to determine if the remains are US or allied troops and if their identities can be pinned down. Still, Mattis said the return was important. “We have families that, when they got the telegram, have never had closure. They’ve never gone out and had the body returned,” he said. Trump thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for “fulfilling a promise.” “I’m sure that he will continue to fulfill that promise as they search and search and search,” he said. “These incredible American heroes will soon lay at rest on sacred American soil.” Vice President Mike Pence, the son of a Korean War vet, will greet families when the remains reach the US. With Post wires<doc-sep>Open this photo in gallery Delegates from the participating countries in the Korean War salute coffins of six U.S. soldiers, draped in the flag of the United Nations, during a tentative repatriation ceremony at a U.S. military base in Seoul on April 12, 2007. From 1996 to 2005, joint U.S.-North Korea military search teams conducted 33 recovery operations that collected 229 sets of American remains. The last time North Korea turned over remains was in 2007, when Bill Richardson, a former UN ambassador and New Mexico governor, secured the return of six sets. You Sung-ho North Korea handed over 55 boxes carrying remains thought to be of U.S. soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War on Friday, officials said, a first step in implementing an agreement reached in a landmark summit in June. The handover of the boxes, draped in the blue and white flag of the United Nations, represents a modest diplomatic triumph for U.S. President Donald Trump from his June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore that was aimed primarily at persuading North Korea to give up a nuclear weapons program that threatens the United States. “At this moment a plane is carrying the remains of some great fallen heroes from America back from the Korean War,” Trump said at an event at the White House. Story continues below advertisement “I want to thank Chairman Kim for keeping his word. We have many others coming. But I want to thank Chairman Kim in front of the media for fulfilling a promise that he made to me. And I’m sure that he will continue to fulfill that promise as they search and search and search,” Trump said. The transfer of the remains coincided with the 65th anniversary of the 1953 armistice that ended fighting between North Korean and Chinese forces and South Korean and U.S.-led forces under the U.N. Command. The two sides remain technically at war because a peace treaty was never signed. More than 7,700 U.S. troops who fought in the Korean War remain unaccounted for, with about 5,300 of those lost in what is now North Korea. The pledge to transfer war remains was seen as a goodwill gesture by Kim at the summit. While it has taken longer than some U.S. officials had hoped, the handover will rekindle hopes for progress in nuclear talks, which so far has appeared scant. Kim committed in a broad summit statement to work toward denuclearization but Pyongyang has offered no details, raising doubts about whether he is willing to give up his weapons unilaterally, as Washington has demanded. In a statement on the remains handover, the White House said it was “encouraged by North Korea’s actions and the momentum for positive change,” while South Korea called it “meaningful progress that could contribute to fostering trust” between Pyongyang and Washington. A U.S. military transport plane flew to an airfield in North Korea’s northeastern city of Wonsan to bring the remains to Osan air base in South Korea. Story continues below advertisement At Osan, soldiers in dress uniforms with white gloves slowly carried the 55 cases to vans waiting on the tarmac. The U.N. Command said the remains would be flown to Hawaii for further processing under the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on July 15 that Washington and Pyongyang had agreed to recommence field operations in North Korea to search for the thousands of Americans who never returned home from North Korea. JOINT SEARCHES U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday the U.S. military was “absolutely” considering the possibility of sending personnel to North Korea for this purpose. He told reporters Friday’s handover set a positive tone for broader diplomatic negotiations. The United States and North Korea conducted such joint searches from 1996 until 2005, when Washington halted the operations, citing concerns about the safety of its personnel as Pyongyang stepped up its nuclear program. More than 400 caskets of remains found in North Korea were returned to the United States between the 1990s and 2005, with the bodies of some 330 other Americans also accounted for, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Story continues below advertisement The program helped bring in vital hard currency to North Korea, which has been under U.S.-led sanctions for decades. However, reviving it could complicate U.S. efforts to persuade countries around the world to maintain economic pressure on Pyongyang. Pyongyang has renewed calls for a declaration of the end of the Korean War, calling it the “first process for peace” and an important way Washington can add heft to security guarantees it has pledged in return for North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons. The U.S. State Department says Washington is committed to building a peace mechanism to replace the armistice when North Korea has denuclearized. Pompeo told a Senate hearing on Wednesday North Korea was continuing to produce fuel for nuclear bombs despite its pledge to denuclearize, even as he argued that the United States was making progress in talks with Pyongyang. Pompeo said North Korea had begun to dismantle a missile test site, something Kim also promised in Singapore, and called it “a good thing, steps forward.” However, he said North Korea needed to follow through on his summit commitments to denuclearize and stressed the need to maintain sanctions until it did so.<doc-sep>U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, second from right, greets Kim Yong Chol, second from left, a North Korean senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, as they arrive for a meeting at the Park Hwa Guest House in Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, July 6, 2018. Pompeo is on a trip traveling to North Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Abu Dhabi, and Brussels. Also pictured is Andrew Kim, the head of the CIA's Korea Mission Center, right. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 09: National Security Adviser John Bolton speaks on a morning television show from the grounds of the White House, on May 9, 2018 in Washington, DC. Yesterday President Donald Trump announced that America was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) N. Korea to Pompeo: You may not have slept well U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, speaks during a meeting with North Korean Director of the United Front Department Kim Yong Chol at the Park Hwa Guest House in Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, July 6, 2018. Pompeo is on a trip traveling to North Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Abu Dhabi, and Brussels. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) SINGAPORE - JUNE 12: In this handout photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump during their historic U.S.-DPRK summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island on June 12, 2018 in Singapore. U.S. President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held the historic meeting between leaders of both countries on Tuesday morning in Singapore, carrying hopes to end decades of hostility and the threat of North Korea's nuclear program. (Photo by Kevin Lim/THE STRAITS TIMES/Handout/Getty Images) SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE - JUNE 12: In this handout photograph provided by The Strait Times, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) with U.S. President Donald Trump (R) during their historic U.S.-DPRK summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island on June 12, 2018 in Singapore. U.S. President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held the historic meeting between leaders of both countries on Tuesday morning in Singapore, carrying hopes to end decades of hostility and the threat of North Korea's nuclear programme. (Photo by Kevin Lim/The Strait Times/Handout/Getty Images) TOPSHOT - North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (L) shakes hands with US President Donald Trump (R) after taking part in a signing ceremony at the end of their historic US-North Korea summit, at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore on June 12, 2018. - Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un became on June 12 the first sitting US and North Korean leaders to meet, shake hands and negotiate to end a decades-old nuclear stand-off. (Photo by Anthony WALLACE / POOL / AFP) (Photo credit should read ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images) TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump (R) poses with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (L) at the start of their historic US-North Korea summit, at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore on June 12, 2018. - Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un have become on June 12 the first sitting US and North Korean leaders to meet, shake hands and negotiate to end a decades-old nuclear stand-off. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (3rd L) shakes hands with North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho (3rd R) as they arrive for a group photo at the ASEAN Regional Forum Retreat during the 51st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Singapore on August 4, 2018. - Leaders, ministers and representatives are meeting in the city-state from August 1 to 4 for the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM). (Photo by Mohd RASFAN / AFP) (Photo credit should read MOHD RASFAN/AFP/Getty Images) (CNN) — North Korea has turned over what they say are an initial 55 cases holding remains believed to be of US troops killed during the Korean War. After an initial assessment at an air base in South Korea, the remains will be flown to a US military laboratory in Hawaii for DNA analysis for what could be a lengthy and challenging process of identifying the remains and returning them to families. So what could that process look like? Their remains, military tags and uniforms will be examined Scientists at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency lab (DPAA) use forensic anthropology, forensic dentistry, DNA and other scientific methods. The facility, named after the late Sen. Dan Inouye of Hawaii, describes itself as the largest forensic anthropology lab in the world. Scientists there analyze remains of missing service members from World War II, Korea and Vietnam, to match their DNAs and to return them to loved ones. A genealogist who works on such cases looks at the soldiers’ family tree and ancestries for possible DNA samples. During the process, forensic anthropologists also examine the human remains and material evidence, such as military uniforms, belongings and identification tags. After that, the skeletal remains are examined to determine features such as sex, race, stature and age at death. 99% of troops don’t have DNA on file The next part includes DNA evidence and dental impressions to try to link them to missing military personnel. One of the major issues is that the Korean War happened almost seven decades ago. About 99% of the service members from the Korean War and earlier conflicts don’t have DNA on file, according to the Department of Defense. “We have a genealogist who works cases just like that, where they go in and look at the family tree where their ancestries are so that we can possibly get a DNA sample that way,” said said Army Sgt. 1st Class Shelia Cooper of the DPAA. For years, the military has encouraged family members of Korean War soldiers to donate DNA that can be potentially used to identify their relatives’ remains. But that can be challenging when some don’t have biological family available to provide DNA samples. Dental records are also critical, because if the person had a dental exam that contained X-rays, or any records and treatment, those can provide clues in the identification process. Teeth and bones are crucial Teeth and bones may also have some of the person’s mitochondrial DNA, when all other soft tissue could have degraded. The Hawaii lab uses mitochondrial DNA in about 75% of its cases, according to the DPAA. Those mitochondrial DNA sequences are compared to a family member who is maternally related to the unidentified American, as it’s passed down only from the mother. But there’s a catch. “Since these sequences are rare but not unique within the general population, they cannot stand alone as evidence for identification,” according to DPAA. All the reports go through a peer review process with external, independent experts, according to the agency. Since the DNA technology started in the 1990s, the process of identifying remains has focused more on pulling mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from skeletal material. The process of analyzing DNA is long and painstaking, and can sometimes take months or years depending on what shape the remains are in. CNN’s Alexandra Field, Jamie Tarabay, Barbara Starr, Ryan Browne and James Griffith contributed to this report.<doc-sep>
North Korea on Friday returned the remains of what are believed to be U.S. servicemen killed during the Korean War, the White House said, with a U.S military plane making a rare trip into North Korea to retrieve 55 cases of remains. The handover follows through on a promise North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made to U.S. President Donald Trump when the leaders met in June and is the first tangible result from the much-hyped summit. Trump welcomed the repatriation and thanked Kim in a tweet. The Remains of American Servicemen will soon be leaving North Korea and heading to the United States! After so many years, this will be a great moment for so many families. Thank you to Kim Jong Un. —@realDonaldTrump The United Nations Command said 55 cases of remains were retrieved from North Korea. The White House earlier confirmed that a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft containing remains of fallen service members had departed Wonsan, a Northern coastal city, on its way to the Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, near the South Korean capital of Seoul. A formal repatriation ceremony will be held there Wednesday. At the air base, U.S. servicemen and a military honour guard lined up on the tarmac to receive the remains, which were carried in boxes covered in blue UN flags. 7,700 missing soldiers About 7,700 U.S. soldiers are listed as missing from the 1950-53 Korean War, and 5,300 of the remains are believed to still be in North Korea. The war killed millions, including 36,000 American soldiers. U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, in a statement from the UN Command, called the retrieval mission successful. "Now, we will prepare to honour our fallen before they continue on their journey home." Following the honours ceremony on Wednesday, the remains will be flown to Hawaii for scientific testing. A series of forensic examinations will be done to determine if the remains are human and if the dead were U.S. or allied troops killed in the conflict. Trump late Thursday tweeted the repatriation was occurring and said, "After so many years, this will be a great moment for so many families. Thank you to Kim Jong-un." North Korean demands Officials in North Korea had no comment on the handover on Friday, the 65th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, which the country celebrated as the day of "victory in the fatherland liberation war." Despite soaring rhetoric about denuclearization before Kim and Trump met in Singapore, their summit ended with only a vague aspirational goal for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing when and how that would occur. U.S. soldiers salute vehicles transporting the remains of 55 U.S. soldiers in South Korea. The remains are believed to be some of the more than 200 that North Korea has held in storage for some time, and were likely recovered from land during farming or construction. (The Associated Press) The repatriation of remains could be followed by stronger North Korean demands for fast-tracked discussions to formally end the war, which was stopped with an armistice and not a peace treaty. South Korea's Defence Ministry also said the North agreed to general-level military talks next week at a border village to discuss reducing tensions across the countries' heavily armed border. The U.S. military last month said that 100 wooden "temporary transit cases" built in Seoul were sent to the Joint Security Area at the Korean border as part of preparations to receive and transport remains in a dignified manner. U.S. Forces Korea spokesperson Col. Chad Carroll also said, at the time, that 158 metal transfer cases were sent to a U.S. air base and would be used to send the remains home. Last remains turned over in 2007 The remains are believed to be some of the more than 200 that North Korea has held in storage for some time, and were likely recovered from land during farming or construction. The vast majority of the war dead, however, have yet to be located and retrieved from cemeteries and battlefields across the countryside. Efforts to recover American war dead had been stalled for more than a decade because of a standoff over North Korea's nuclear program and a previous U.S. claim that security arrangements for its personnel working in the North were insufficient. From 1996 to 2005, joint U.S.-North Korea military search teams conducted 33 recovery operations that collected 229 sets of American remains.