WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says that two Korean War dead have been identified from remains turned over to the U.S. in July by North Korea.
Mattis tells Pentagon reporters Tuesday that experts moved swiftly on analyzing those two sets of remains, as they thought they had a good chance of identifying them because of where they were located and other information.
He didn’t publicly identify them.
North Korea turned over 55 boxes of remains to U.S. officials at Wonsan, North Korea, on July 27. The Defense Department laboratory at Hawaii’s Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam is working to identify them. Last month, the department identified one service member whose dog tag was returned.
Mattis says talks are ongoing with North Korea to get additional remains repatriated.