South Korea on Friday (September 16th) repatriated the remains of 88 Chinese soldiers killed in the Korean War, the first such operation since new South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol came to power.
At a ceremony at Incheon airport near Seoul, South Korean honor guards carried the coffins to a Chinese air force plane, live footage shows by televisions.
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The bodies arrived a few hours later in the city of Shenyang, in northeastern China, where military honors were returned to them in the presence of veterans of the Korean War (1950-1953). This is the 9th repatriation operation since the signing in 2014 of an agreement to this effect between China and South Korea, enemy countries during the Cold War. Since then, the bodies of 913 Chinese soldiers have been returned to their country.
Friday’s repatriations are the first since the right-wing new South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol took office in May, seeking to preserve friendly relations with Beijing while strengthening the military alliance between Seoul and Washington. They also took place in the year of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Beijing and Seoul.
Communist China intervened alongside North Korea during the Korean War. About three million Chinese troops had taken part in the conflict, saving Pyongyang from defeat and pushing back United Nations forces led by the United States south of the 38th parallel. The war ended in a stalemate and an armistice that still exists today. Westerners generally estimate that 400,000 Chinese died during the war, while China puts its death toll at around 180,000.