The US identified the first remains of American troops returned by North Korea since Trump-Kim summit

AP Photo/Susan Walsh

Vice President Mike Pence, left, Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Adm. Phil Davidson, center, and Rear Adm. Jon Kreitz, deputy director of the POW/MIA Accounting Agency, attend at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii

• The US has identified the first two American service members from among the remains of US war dead returned by North Korea in July.
• The identities are expected to be made public in the coming days pending notification of the families.

The US has successfully identified two American service members from among the remains North Korea returned this July as part of the agreement signed by President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore.

"We will notify the family first," John Byrd, the director of scientific analysis at the US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency explained to Reuters Monday. The two US service members, who were identified through DNA analysis and historical documents, are believed to have died in late 1950 in an area near the Chongchon River, where US forces suffered heavy losses during the Korean War.

The fight where the two service members likely died was characterized as a "huge battle," as an estimated 1,700 missing US troops are suspected to have fallen there.

"One of the reasons that we were able to identify them so quickly [was because their remains] were more complete than usual so it gave us more to look at and narrow down the identity with," Byrd told The Wall Street Journal. One of the deceased is presumed to be African-American.

The condition of some of the remains is decidedly better than that of others.

Researchers and analysts at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii have so far sampled 23 of the 55 sets of remains returned in late July. The US military estimates that more than 7,000 US troops who lost their lives during the Korean War remain unaccounted for. The US is still in talks with North Korea on the return of additional sets of remains of US war dead.

A United Nations Command delegation led by US Air Force Major General Michael Minihan met with North Korean officials at Panmunjom Friday to discuss "military-to-military efforts to support any potential future return of remains," AFP reported Tuesday.

The return of the remains is probably the most visible and concrete achievements of the president's summit with the North Korean leader, as denuclearization talks appear to be at an impasse. Despite setbacks in the nuclear negotiations, North Korea has maintained its moratorium on weapons testing, has toned down its rhetoric, and attempted to downplay the threatening nature of its arsenal, as was evidenced by its decision not to feature ICBMs in its most recent military parade.