(File photo)
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday the United States will receive the first group of soldiers' remains from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the next couple of weeks.
In a cabinet meeting at the White House, Pompeo said that in his third trip to the DPRK since assuming the current job, progress has been made regarding the repatriation of soldiers' remains in the Asian nation.
"We're making progress along the border to get the return of remains – a very important issue for those families," Pompeo said.
"We think in the next couple of weeks we'll have the first remains returned. That's the commitment," he said.
The top diplomat of the US added that the sanctions on the DPRK will remain.
"We made progress on some issues. There's a lot of work to do. It may take some time to get where we need to go. But all of this will be taking place against the backdrop of continued enforcement of existing sanctions," he said.
Pompeo said on Sunday that both the US and DPRK representatives agreed earlier on the same day to restart field operations in the Asian nation to search for the estimated 5,300 Americans missing in the 1950-1953 Korean War.
As part of the outcomes of the US-DPRK leaders' Singapore summit in mid-June, Pyongyang and Washington agreed to commit to recovering the remains of the US war dead and those missing in action during the war, including an immediate repatriation of those already identified.
Pompeo said that while more work was needed, it was “a very hopeful place that we find ourselves with, making a strategic change for North Korea (DPRK), giving them the opportunity for a brighter future for their people,” Reuters reported on Wednesday.
DPRK leader Kim Jong Un made his commitment to denuclearize at an unprecedented summit with Trump in June but offered little details as to how and when this might take place, leaving uncertainty about Pyongyang’s intentions, especially after Pompeo's last visit to the DPRK did not meet the Trump administration's expectations.
While the United States has stressed the need to maintain sanctions on the DPRK, Russia’s envoy to Pyongyang was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying it would be logical to raise the question of easing sanctions with the UN Security Council, given positive changes, the Reuters report said.
Trump announced after the June summit that Kim had agreed to return the remains of “thousands and thousands” of Americans killed in the Korean War, but no remains have been handed over since then, raising further questions about the DPRK's intentions.
A senior US defense official said on Tuesday Washington hoped the DPRK would return about 50 sets of remains within two weeks but details were still uncertain, in spite of two days of talks between US and DPRK officials on Sunday and Monday.