South Korea has returned the remains of 88 Chinese soldiers killed during the Korean War for the first time since South Korean President Yoon Sok-yeol took office in May.
Footage showed South Korean honor guards distributing wooden coffins containing remains during a ceremony where they were loaded onto a Chinese Air Force cargo plane at Incheon Airport near Seoul.
The bodies were recovered hours later during a military ceremony attended by Chinese war veterans in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang.
The body count of Chinese soldiers repatriated from South Korea since the signing of the agreement in 2014 has risen to 913.
The latest recall is the first since South Korean Yun took office, who has sought to maintain a cordial relationship with Beijing while moving to deepen ties with key security ally Washington.
“The annual remains of Chinese troops are given on a humanitarian basis, but it also symbolizes the friendly cooperation between South Korea and China,” Lee Do-hoon, South Korea’s second deputy foreign minister, said at the event.
Li added that the two countries will pursue “various forms of cooperation” as they celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations.
China intervened on the side of North Korea in the 1950-1953 Korean War, known in China as the War of Resistance to American Aggression and Aid to Korea.
An estimated three million Chinese Communist soldiers fought alongside Pyongyang’s forces, helping to change the scale of the war.
Beijing’s intervention saved North Korea from defeat and drew back international forces led by the US.
Casualty figures are still inconsistent as Western estimates put the number of casualties at 400,000 in the ranks of the Chinese army, while Chinese sources put the number of casualties at 180,000.
Source: AP
Source: Arabic RT