The remains of an unknown number of US soldiers killed in the Korean war have been handed over by North Korea, in a move hailed by Donald Trump as a “great moment”.
A US military transport plane flew to an airfield in North Korea’s north-eastern city of Wonsan to bring the remains to Osan air base in the South, the statement said.
A formal repatriation ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday at Osan.
The US president thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Twitter.
The Remains of American Servicemen will soon be leaving North Korea and heading to the United States! After so many years, this will be a great moment for so many families. Thank you to Kim Jong Un.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2018
The White House said it was a significant step.
“Today, [North Korean leader Kim Jong-un] is fulfilling part of the commitment he made to the president to return our fallen American service members,” it said in a statement. “We are encouraged by North Korea’s actions and the momentum for positive change.”
About 7,700 US soldiers are listed as missing from the Korean war, and 5,300 of the remains are believed to still be in North Korea. The war killed millions, including 36,000 American soldiers.
Pyongyang had been expected to return about 55 sets of remains from the 1950-53 Korean war, a step meant to fulfil a commitment made by Kim during his summit with Donald Trump in June.
Friday marks the 65th anniversary of the armistice that ended fighting in the Korean war. North Korea celebrates it as the day of “victory in the fatherland liberation war”.
Efforts to recover American war dead had been stalled for more than a decade because of a standoff over the regime’s nuclear program and a previous US claim that security arrangements for its personnel working in the North were insufficient.
The pledge to transfer war remains was seen as a goodwill gesture by Kim at the June summit and, while it has taken longer than some US officials had hoped, the handover will rekindle hopes for progress in nuclear talks.
Kim committed in a broad summit statement to work toward denuclearisation but Pyongyang has offered no details about how it might go about this.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has previously said the return of remains could boost the momentum for the nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington.
Between 1996 and 2005, joint US-North Korea military search teams conducted 33 recovery operations that collected 229 sets of American remains. The last time North Korea turned over remains was in 2007, when Bill Richardson, a former UN ambassador and New Mexico governor, secured the return of six sets.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this story