Mungyeong: South Korea and the United States on Wednesday initiated a six-week project aimed at searching for the remains and belongings of soldiers who lost their lives during the 1950-53 Korean War, as announced by Seoul's defense ministry.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the collaboration involves the South Korean ministry's Agency for KIA Recovery and Identification and the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). The operation is taking place in Mungyeong, approximately 140 kilometers southeast of Seoul, where a U.S. F-51D fighter jet crashed during the war.
The current project will prioritize recovering components of the fighter jet to aid in the identification of the aircraft's pilot. A similar search was conducted in the area last year, but efforts to recover parts with the jet's unique serial number were unsuccessful.
The two countries have consistently engaged in joint excavation projects to locate missing American soldiers from the Korean War. Over 1.7 million U.S. troops participated in the conflict, with more than 36,000 fatalities. According to the DPAA, nearly 7,500 Americans remain unaccounted for from the three-year war.