North Korea Summit: Kim Jong-Un Agrees To Repatriate Remains Of U.S. Soldiers Killed In Korean War

North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, has agreed to repatriate the remains of American soldiers killed in action during the Korean War, NPR reports.

Although this was not the focus of the summit between the two leaders, it is one of the four key points agreed to by Kim and Trump. Veterans of Foreign Wars National Commander Keith Harman said that – although these talks were primarily about denuclearization – Korean War vets and their families were hoping this issue would also come up, and it has.

“All of our members have served in combat and we understand the importance of bring [sic] our war dead home to bring closure to families,” Harman said.

Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), NPR noted, sent a letter to President Donald Trump back in June this year, urging him to make the issue part of the president’s negotiation with North Korea’s supreme leader. Between 1950 and 1953, according to VFW estimates, 35,000 American soldiers died and 7,700 are still listed as missing in action (MIA).

As The Telegraph reported, President Donald Trump vowed to end war games with North Korea, pledging new history. Kim Jong-un signed a complete denuclearization and promised to destroy a missile engine testing site. The 400-word statement followed more than four hours of talks, and the two men, The Telegraph noted, displayed warm body language toward each other.

President Donald Trump, as the Inquisitr previously reported, did not shy away from praising North Korea’s leader, claiming that he considers Kim to be a “very talented” leader who “loves his country,” although he runs it “tough.”

Trump also said Kim did not hesitate to agree to repatriate the remains of American soldiers killed in action during the Korean War. The supreme leader, Trump said, was happy to accommodate the request. According to NPR, the president himself said that he had been lobbied about the issue, even as a candidate.

“I must have had just countless calls and letters and tweets, anything you can do — they want the remains of their sons back. They want the remains of their fathers, and mothers, and all of the people that got caught into that really brutal war, which took place, to a large extent, in North Korea. And I asked for it today, and we got it.”

According to the Associated Press, the commitment to recover the remains of U.S. military personnel missing in action and presumed dead from the Korean War is the most tangible outcome of the North Korea summit.

North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons jeopardized the safety of recovery teams previous American administrations sent to the country, so efforts to recover and return the remains have been stalled for more than a decade, AP noted. During the Korean War, most of the missing Americans died in major battles, in aircraft crashes, or as prisoners of war.