Two Korean War Victims Identified, Killed In 1951 Battle

Ilustrasi Perang Korea. (Wikimedia Commons/Work of US Soldier)

JAKARTA - Two korean war death toll soldiers were identified through DNA analysis, South Korea's Defense Ministry said in a statement Friday, May 14.

Visiting Koreatimes Friday, May 14, the remains of the two dead soldiers were recovered from excavations at the former site of the two Korean battles conducted several years ago.

The two known identities of the soldiers are Private First Class Yoon Deok-yong and Private First Class Kang Seong-ki. The process of introduction of both is possible by the registration of DNA samples by the family to the government.

"The remains of the two were excavated in Yanggu, about 175 kilometers northeast of Seoul in 2017," South Korea's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Both are thought to have been killed in the fighting that took place in 1951. Both were identified as 163rd and 164th, since the South Korean Government decided to begin excavating the remains of its soldiers killed in the war since 2000.

For the record, the Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when about 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People's Army flowed across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north and the pro-Western South Korean Republic for the South. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War.

The Korean War was relatively brief but very bloody. Nearly five million people died. More than half are civilians. Unknown, the civilian casualty rate of the Korean War is higher than that of World War II and the Vietnam War. While nearly 40 thousand U.S. people were killed in the war in Korea and more than 100 thousand wounded.

Meanwhile, about 140,000 South Korean soldiers were killed and about 450,000 wounded in the war. The jumalah includes 123,000 bodies of South Korean soldiers who have not been found.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said it would hold a ceremony, to mark the 'return' of the soldiers and place their bodies in a national cemetery.