South Korea returns remains of Chinese soldiers for the 8th time

A ceremony was held in Incheon, South Korea, on Wednesday morning during which the remains of 109 fallen Chinese soldiers were placed into caskets, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Participants in the ceremony included Chang Zhengguo, China's vice-minister of veterans affairs; Wang Jingguo, military attaché from the Chinese embassy; and officials from South Korea's defense ministry.

On Thursday, a Chinese delegation will receive the caskets and 1,226 pieces of articles belonging to those fallen soldiers — who died during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53) — at a handover ceremony at Incheon International Airport, the report said.

This will be the eighth time South Korea delivers remains of Chinese soldiers to China.

Commanded by Peng Dehuai, a total of 2.9 million Chinese People's Volunteer Army soldiers fought in the war, and nearly 200,000 of them died in combat.

South Korea began recovering remains of the fallen soldiers in 2000. A special unit was established by the South Korean army in 2003 to take charge of the recovery.

China and South Korea have cooperated to move the remains of 716 Chinese soldiers since 2014, the first time remains were returned.

The seventh such repatriation took place on Sept 27 last year in Incheon, during which the remains of 117 fallen soldiers were carried by a Y-20 strategic airlift aircraft, the Chinese Air Force's best transport plane, back to Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province.

According to South Korean media, most of the remains of Chinese soldiers that have been found so far were buried in Gangwon-do and Gyeonggi-do.