China Sends Military Planes To Return 88 Bodies Of Korean War Soldiers

ILLUSTRATION/UNSPLASH/Lau Keith

JAKARTA - China has sent a military plane to South Korea to bring back the bodies of 88 soldiers who died during the Korean War in 1950-1953.

A Y-20 military transport plane belonging to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) departed from one of its bases in northern China on Wednesday (14/9).

A unit of J-20 reconnaissance fighter jets will escort the Y-20 in bringing the bodies of the 88 martyrs home, PLA Air Force spokesman Senior Colonel Shen Jinke told the press in Beijing as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, September 15.

The body was placed in a coffin on Thursday for repatriation to China on Friday (16/9) which was preceded by a ceremonial ceremony at Incheon International Airport west of the South Korean capital, KoSeoul.

China's Deputy Minister of Veterans Affairs Chang Zhengguo, officials from the Chinese Embassy in South Korea, and South Korean Defense Ministry officials and personnel involved in the excavation and identification of bodies will attend the ceremony.

China and South Korea have handed over the bodies of 825 Chinese People's Volunteer Army (CPV) personnel for eight consecutive years from 2014 to 2021 in accordance with humanitarian principles and the spirit of friendship between the two countries.

The Korean War was a conflict between North and South Korea that took place from June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953.

The war was a proxy war between the United States and its allies against the Chinese Communists who cooperated with the Soviet Union.

The death toll on the Chinese side reached around 145,000 people in armed contact on the Korean Peninsula, while on the South Korean side (673,000), the US (50,000), and the Soviet Union (315).