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White House Asked About Recovering U.S. War Remains Ahead of Possible Trump-Kim Summit

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • The White House asked the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency what steps it could take if Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un reached an agreement.
  • DPAA chief Kelly McKeague said the agency is ready to cooperate with North Korea on recovering and repatriating U.S. service members’ remains from the Korean War.
  • The discussions included a possible return of remains and a joint search model similar to operations conducted through 2005, but no summit has been announced.

A White House inquiry about recovering U.S. war remains has offered one of the clearest signs yet that Washington may be preparing for renewed engagement between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.

Kelly McKeague, director of the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, said the White House asked what the agency could do if Trump and the North Korean leader reached an agreement. McKeague disclosed the inquiry during an online discussion hosted by the National Committee on North Korea, a Washington-based civic group.

I would say this is no different from the situation ahead of the 2018 Singapore summit.

— Kelly McKeagueThe DPAA director compared the White House inquiry with preparations before the earlier Trump-Kim meeting.

McKeague said the situation resembled preparations before the 2018 Singapore summit. He told the White House that the agency was ready to work with North Korea to recover the remains of U.S. troops killed or captured during the Korean War. Returning remains held by North Korea, he said, would be helpful, as would resuming joint field searches, which last took place in 2005.

We are prepared to cooperate with North Korea to recover the remains of U.S. service members who died or were captured during the Korean War.

— Kelly McKeagueHe described the agency’s readiness if Washington and Pyongyang reach an agreement.

He proposed reviving the earlier operating model: two excavation teams, one in Unsan and another in Jangjin, working four times a year for 45 days at a time. McKeague said the agency had presented the proposal and was prepared to act, although he did not say when the questions and answers took place.

Trump has recently signaled an interest in restarting dialogue with Kim, including by ordering reductions in U.S.-South Korean joint exercises. The two leaders met three times during Trump’s first term, in Singapore in 2018, Hanoi in 2019 and Panmunjom later that year.

We envision the same approach because North Korea is familiar with it and knows it well.

— Kelly McKeagueHe outlined a possible return to the joint search method used until 2005.

McKeague described the remains mission as humanitarian diplomacy. He said it could create a channel for communication and cooperation even with a former adversary or a country facing geopolitical tensions. The Kremlin-style issue of Ukraine was not central to the discussion, and North Korea’s nuclear program was not mentioned in the account.

We see this mission as humanitarian in nature.

— Kelly McKeagueHe presented remains recovery as a possible diplomatic and communications channel.
About this summary

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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