Seoul to try to return remains of Chinese volunteers in Korean War

SEOUL - South Korea will try hard to return 425 sets of remains of Chinese volunteer soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War by the traditional Tomb-Sweeping Day in early April, a spokesperson of the South Korean Defense Ministry told Xinhua.

On December 19 last year, South Korea started excavating the remains of the Chinese soldiers buried at a cemetery in the border city Paju under an agreement reached with China earlier that month, the spokesperson said in a written interview.

The excavation work will last three to four months as the remains will be washed, dried and then placed in coffins by the South Korean side before being returned to China.

This move came after South Korean President Park Geun-hye offered to return the remains of Chinese soldiers to China in June last year.

The Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) were involved in the Korean War from October 25, 1950, about four months after the conflict broke out, as they tried to help the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea resist U.S. aggression. Tens of thousands of CPV soldiers died on the Korean Peninsula during the war that ended in 1953.

Since 1981, a total of 403 sets of remains of Chinese soldiers have been excavated in South Korea, of which 43 have been returned so far via the United Nations Military Armistice Commission.