More than a month after North Korea pledged to immediately return some American war dead, the promise is unfulfilled. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who traveled to Pyongyang this month to press the North Koreans further, said Wednesday the return could begin "in the next couple of weeks," starting a process agreed by Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.
"We're making progress along the border to get the return of remains, a very important issue for those families," Pompeo said during a meeting at the White House Wednesday. "I think in the next couple of weeks we'll have the first remains returned, that's the commitment, so progress certainly being made there."
Pompeo did not confirm media reports that the first repatriations would be on July 27, and that about 50-55 sets of remains would be returned.
But it could take months or years to positively identify the bones as those of specific American servicemen.
In a joint statement at their Singapore summit, President Trump and the North Korean leader committed to recovering the remains of prisoners of war and those missing in action decades after the Korean War — "including the immediate repatriation of those already identified."
North Korean and US military officials met Sunday at the truce village of Panmunjom on the inter-Korean border to discuss the repatriation.
"This conversation continues," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
"There's a lot of work left to be done at a lot of different levels."
Dozens of transfer cases to carry the American remains have been brought to the southern side of the border in recent weeks.
At the Singapore summit, Kim made a broad commitment to denuclearize, but offered no details as to how and when this might take place, leaving considerable doubts about Pyongyang’s intentions.
The US administration has given no indication as to when dialogue on denuclearization might resume.
On Tuesday, Trump said there was “no time limit” and reiterated in a tweet on Wednesday that there was “no rush,” noting that sanctions remained in place and there would be big benefits for North Korea at the end of the process.
