U.S., N. Korea Agree To MIA Searches

North Korean and U.S. negotiators have agreed on a new round of joint searches for the remains of American soldiers missing in action from the Korean War.

Under the agreement, reached in Bangkok, three 30-day searches will be undertaken in North Korea beginning July 20, according to a U.S. government statement issued Tuesday.

So far, 22 such operations in North Korea since 1996 have recovered remains believed to be those of 152 American soldiers. Eleven have been identified.

Search teams will survey sites on the western shores of the Chosin Reservoir, the statement said. U.S. forces suffered heavy casualties there in 1950, and many Americans were hastily buried in shallow graves.

The searches are conducted between April and November. Any excavated remains will be repatriated by the end of October, the statement said.

More than 8,100 American military personnel remain missing and unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice dividing the Korean peninsula into communist North Korea and the U.S.-backed capitalist South.