North Korea only handed over one military dog tag when it provided 55 boxes of bones it said were remains of American soldiers killed in the Korean War, a U.S. defense official told the AP, per The Guardian.
North Korea gave the U.S. the remains last week in the coastal city of Wonsan, North Korea, as part of an deal reached last month during President Donald Trump's historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore. U.S. officials catalogued the bones after flying them aboard a U.S. military transport to Osan air base in South Korea.
A repatriation ceremony for the remains will take place Wednesday, and the bones will then be taken to Hawaii where they will undergo forensic analysis so officials can try to identify who they belong to. The Department of Defense said it will use dental records and mitochondrial DNA to identify the fallen.
"Many of the fallen service members died in North Korea and were buried by their comrades where they fell," said the DOD in a press release. "Other U.S. service members were captured and placed in prisoner-of-war camps, where many succumbed to starvation, exposure, and torture. Outside those camps are graves of Americans."
The age of the remains are reportedly 65 years old. The U.S. has tried for years to obtain war remains from North Korea, as approximately 7,700 U.S. troops are still listed as missing in action, with 5,300 believed to be on North Korean soil.
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