Page 288 - 2018 Defense White Paper

[ Chart 6-17 ] Status of DNA Sampling of Bereaved Families and Identification of Korean War KIAs
(As of the end of December 2018)
2000–
Year Total 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
2007
DNA sampling 44,428 3,378 2,282 4,524 3,388 4,252 4,765 4,005 2,645 2,921 4,041 4,072 4,155

Identification 131 31 13 11 6 7 11 5 17 8 9 9 4

th
In November 2015, at the 47 ROK–U.S. Security Consultative Meeting (SCM),the two
countries discussed ways to cooperate on the recovery of Korean War remains. During the
meeting, the MND and the U.S. Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting

Agency(DPAA) signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) 50) .
In June 2017, the two countries performed the return ceremony for the remains of Korean
War KIAs of U.S. Forces, recovered in Yeongdong, North Chungcheong Province, in March
2017. In March 2018, the ROK returned 20 sets of remains of PVA members to China. On

October 1, 2018, in celebration of the ROK Armed Forces Day, the ROK Vice Minister of
National Defense visited Hawaii for the takeover of 64 sets of remains of the ROK KIAs during

the Korean War recovered in North Korea and held a return ceremony presided by the President
at Seoul Airport. The ceremony was held with utmost respect toward the heroes who sacrif iced
their lives for the home country, which demonstrated the government’s dedication to take full
responsibility to honor them.

As the experiences and techniques accumulated by the Korean War remains recovery project
reached a globally recognized level, f ive representatives from the Vietnam National Supervisory

Commission visited the ROK in September 2017 to discuss collaborations for remains recovery. 51)
In October 2017, the Australian Minister and Vice Minister of Defense visited the ROK 52) to
learn from the knowledge in remains recovery, including identif ication, detection, excavation,
and post-management, which the ROK accumulated through the remains recovery project.

50) The parties agreed to ˝mutually provide policy support related to the recovery of remains, ˞cooperate on the
provision of data to locate Korean War KIAs and MIAs, ˟conduct joint investigations and excavations, and
ˠhold annual meetings to discuss common interests and ensure cooperation.
51) Five representatives of the Vietnamese Office of National Steering Board 1237 (Major General Tran Quoc Dung;
September 11–15, 2017)
52) Nine representatives including Minister of Defense Marise Payne (October 12, 2017)

286 Chapter 6 Instilling a High-Morale Military Culture Trusted by the People