A South Korean police officer who was killed in the Korean War has been identified 63 years after his death in battle, the defense ministry said Friday, marking the 10th set of remains sent home for burial through DNA testing.
The Defense Ministry's Agency for Killed in Action Recovery and Identification (MAKRI) retrieved his remains in Chuncheon in Gangwon Province in May last year, along with his uniform, personal equipment and belongings.
The police officer, Kim Se-han, was dispatched to the battle site shortly after the Korean War broke out in June 1950. Kim died five days after the dispatch at the age of 24, the ministry said.
The military recovery team discovered his identity through a DNA test, as his daughter, now 64, had registered her DNA samples in search of her father's remains six decades after the three-year conflict.
MAKRI has collected 26,673 DNA samples from bereaved families to verify the identities of the fallen soldiers so that their remains can be returned to their loved ones. The agency has retrieved 8,744 remains of fallen soldiers since 2000 and collected DNA samples from 6,373 bodies.
The agency has only been able to return 83 sets of remains to families, while the rest of the remains are awaiting DNA and other forensic tests.
Friday 27 December 2013
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/yonhap-news-agency/131226/s-korea-identifies-remains-police-killed-korean-war
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