Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that relations between the two countries may be warming to the point that he could forsee US forces returning there to find more American remains, hours after a US Air Force C-17 returned from North Korea with the first US war remains to come HOME in years, this past Friday.
The return of the remains was seen as an important step in actions BOTH sides have taken to reduce tension on the Korean peninsula. The US has suspended its military exercises with South Korea as part of the US terms of the agreement.
“It was a coordination effort over the last month to determine where they would deliver the remains to, where our plane would fly in, where they would be taken to for the initial review,” Mattis said.
Mattis said based on this round of interactions, it “is certainly under consideration” that US military teams may return ! to North Korea to scout additional remains recovery sites.
According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the last time US teams were on the ground in North Korea was in 2005.
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