Seoul, Washington to search DMZ for missing troops

SEOUL, Oct. 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korean and U.S. officials will for the first time ever search the area surrounding the heavily fortified inter-Korean border, for the remains of South Korean and American troops killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, South Korea's Defense Ministry said Monday.

Over 13,000 South Korean and some 2,000 U.S. troops are believed to be buried
inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the world's most heavily armed border, a
4-kilometer wide buffer to the line separating the two Koreas, according to the
ministry.
"The joint search... will be conducted to help provide valuable experience for
future excavation projects inside the DMZ, and it will mark the first search ever
inside the DMZ," the ministry said in a statement.
The search will last until Nov. 25, involving some 20 officials from the United
States' Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and dozens more from South Korea's
Agency for KIA Recovery and Identification.
The joint search also aims to find the wreckage of a U.S. fighter jet, an F-84G
that is believed to have crashed in March 1953 near a port in the southwestern
city of Pyeongtaek, according to the ministry.
Some 100,000 South Korean and 8,100 U.S. troops remain missing since the end of
the Korean War.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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