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Gov. Bill Richardson secures remains
Foster Klug/Associated Press
Gov. Bill Richardson (from left) and Anthony Principi, the former secretary of Veterans Affairs, pay their respects to the remains of six U.S. soldiers killed during the Korean War at a ceremony in Panmunjom, North Korea. Richardson and Principi led a U.S. delegation that will return the remains to the United States.
Nuclear agreement reached
Gov. Bill Richardson said today in South Korea that the bipartisan delegation also made progress in talks to press Pyongyang to shut down its sole operating nuclear reactor under a February agreement with the United States and regional powers.
North Korea had agreed to shut down the reactor by Saturday; however, it later insisted that a separate dispute over frozen North Korean funds be resolved before it moved to disarm.
Authorities in the Chinese territory of Macau, where North Korea had its accounts, said Wednesday the money is now free for withdrawal.
Richardson said today that North Korea will invite international inspectors to draw up terms for shutting down the reactor within a day of receiving the money.
Foster Klug/Associated Press
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PANMUNJOM, Korea — U.S. envoys returned to South Korea after securing the remains of six American soldiers from the Korean War and pushing for action on North Korea's nuclear disarmament.
Gov. Bill Richardson and Anthony Principi, former U.S. Veterans Affairs secretary, were greeted at the border by U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow and U.S. military officials.
Richardson spent four days in North Korea, also joined by the top White House adviser on Korea, Victor Cha.
"Hopefully, we've done our bit to relieve the tension between our two countries," Richardson told reporters, referring to the United States and North Korea.
On Wednesday, the Americans drove two hours from the North Korean capital along virtually traffic-free roads, seeing farmers working fields and people walking along the highway.
The remains of the soldiers were transported separately in small, black cases.
Before crossing into the South, the delegation toured the buildings where the armistice that ended the Korean War was negotiated and signed, with a guide showing them where each party sat.
They then walked across the North-South frontier at the truce village of Panmunjom, where the two Koreas stand face-to-face across the border that has divided the Korean Peninsula since the 1953 cease-fire.
Principi said the mission to deliver the remains was one of the most emotional moments of his life.
"To participate in such a noble mission to bring home the remains of men who 50 years ago were in harm's way, and now they're home, it was really quite moving," he said.
More than 33,000 U.S. troops died in the Korean War, which began in June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea. Some 8,100 U.S. servicemen still are listed as missing.
In 2005, the U.S. government halted a separate cooperative program that permitted U.S. military teams to excavate remains from North Korean battlefields, saying the North had created an unsafe environment. The program had recovered remains believed to be from 220 soldiers since 1996.
Richardson was to meet with South Korean diplomats before departing Thursday for Hawaii.
