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Thursday, July 19, 2018, 10:36
US to receive soldiers' remains from DPRK in coming weeks
By Xinhua
Thursday, July 19, 2018, 10:36 By Xinhua

In this July 7, 2018, file photo, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, and Kim Yong-chol, a Democratic People's Republic of Korea's senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, arrive for a lunch at the Park Hwa Guest House in Pyongyang, DPRK. (ANDREW HARNIK / AP)

WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said 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. 

We're making progress along the border to get the return of remains ... We think in the next couple of weeks we'll have the first remains returned. That's the commitment

Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State

In a cabinet meeting at the White House, Pompeo said that during his third trip to the DPRK since assuming the current job, progress had been made regarding the repatriation of soldiers' remains in the Asian nation. 

ALSO READ: Pompeo: Commitments firm in US-DPRK talks on war remains

"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 US foreign policy chief added that US sanctions on the DPRK will remain. 

"We made progresses 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.  

READ MORE: US moves 100 coffins to DPRK border for war remains


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