South Korea will return remains of Chinese soldiers

World Today

South Korea is preparing to repatriate more remains of Chinese soldiers killed during the Korean War. This is the third time Seoul has worked directly with Beijing, without going through Pyongyang.

CCTV’s U-Jean Jung reports.

The remains of 36 Chinese soldiers killed during the Korean War were placed in coffins and ready to be sent home this week.

Since 2013, President Park Geun-hye offered a gesture of good will to return soldiers killed during the Korean War directly to China. Beijing welcomed the offer and more than 500 have been repatriated since, as a sign of warming ties between South Korea and China.

The remains had been buried in Paju, just a few miles south of the inter-Korea border, at a site referred to as the “enemy cemetery.” To honor the Geneva Convention, South Korea excavated and kept the remains of the fallen soldiers whom they had fought against during the Korean War. The fallen soldiers will finally return to China on Thursday for a permanent burial at a state cemetery in Shenyang, after six long decades of waiting buried in foreign soil.