As we wait for the details on North Korea returning the remains of American soldiers who passed away during the Korean War,... we take a look at how exactly that process is taking place.
Our Park Ji-won takes us to a site where they retrieve the remains here in South Korea.
This is Seohwa-myeon, in the county of Inje-gun, Gangwon-do Province.
This region,... located beyond a civilian access control line and right next to the inter-Korean border,... was the backdrop of one of the bloodiest battles in 1951.
It is also where the MAKRI,...or Ministry of National Defense Agency for Killed-in-action Recovery and Identification,... has spent the last six years searching and locating the remains of those who fell in battle. So far, the remains of 250 soldiers have been retrieved.
Personal items are also found here, including an identification tag last week,...and a personal seal just a day ago.

"One of the most important goals of the operation is to collect the remains and send them back to their family members. As identification tags or personal seals are the most paramount evidence for identification process, I feel a great sense of fulfillment and happiness when I find them."

South Korea's efforts to retrieve the remains of fallen heroes began back in 2000,... 50 years after the outbreak of the Korean War.
And in such efforts, in 2007, the MAKRI was officially launched. However, the task is far from being over.

"The remains of some 120-thousand South Korean and 8-thousand U.S. soldiers who died during the Korean War still haven't been recovered."

When remains of a soldier are found,... there are usually personal items scattered in the vicinity. They are all retrieved and place together, then wrapped neatly.
The remains are all put in a casket,.. and covered by the national flag.
The verification of their identities is done mainly through DNA tests.

"The percentage of the remains being identified is just around one percent so far. Because we have only collected about 40-thousand DNA samples of postwar descendants,.. the number of fallen heroes that can't be identified stands at around 130-thousand. We hope that the public more actively join in our initiatives."

When remains of UN Forces or Chinese soldiers are found, they are repatriated to their respective countries,... and with the U.S., the defense agency has conducted several joint recovery operations for the past decade.
However, South and North Korea haven't yet jointly worked to recover war remains, and the nation's defense ministry expressed its hope that the two Koreas could soon be able to cooperate on retrieving the remains from the war that has never ended.
Park Ji-won, Arirang News, Inje.