President Donald Trump tweeted the names of the first U.S. service-member’s remains Thursday identified from a batch sent over by North Korea.
Army Master Sgt. Charles H. McDaniel, 32, of Vernon, Indiana, and Army Pfc. William H. Jones, 19, of Nash County, North Carolina, are the first American remains from…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 20, 2018
…North Korea to be identified as a result of my Summit with Chairman Kim. These HEROES are home, they may Rest In Peace, and hopefully their families can have closure.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 20, 2018
North Korea handed over 55 boxes of U.S. service-member remains from the Korean War in July. The Pentagon is carefully analyzing the remains using DNA and other identification methods. Thousands of U.S. service-members remain unaccounted for from the war several decades ago.
North Korea was unable to say how many remains are within the boxes they delivered. “The North Korean officials that we spoke to were very forthcoming and candid with us and a couple of things they told us was that these were remains believed to be American and from the Korean War,” Pentagon official John Byrd told reporters in a recent briefing.
The repatriation of remains was part of a broader agreement Trump reached with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a June summit in Singapore. Trump often points to the repatriation of the remains as a major victory and deliverable from his summit which was aimed at securing denuclearization.