Remains of 109 soldiers killed in Korean War return home

Fallen troops to be buried at military cemetery in Shenyang on Friday

The remains of 109 Chinese soldiers who died during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53) were brought back to their motherland on Thursday and will be buried in Shenyang on Friday.

The remains, as well as 1,226 items belonging to the soldiers, were transported on Thursday morning from Incheon in the Republic of Korea by a Chinese military transport plane to Shenyang, Liaoning province.

When the People's Liberation Army Air Force's Y-20 strategic airlift plane entered China's territorial airspace, two PLA Air Force fighter jets escorted it to honor the fallen soldiers.

After the aircraft landed at Shenyang Taoxian International Airport, PLA soldiers carried the caskets, draped with China's national flag, out of the plane and placed them on shelves in front of more than 200 government officials, military personnel and representatives of the soldiers' relatives for a brief remembrance ceremony.

After the ceremony, the caskets were transported by PLA trucks and escorted by a police motorcade to the Chinese People's Volunteer Army Martyrs' Cemetery in Shenyang. A burial ceremony is scheduled to take place on Friday morning in the cemetery.

Earlier on Thursday morning, a ceremony to hand over the remains was held at Incheon International Airport in the ROK.

In ceremonial uniforms, PLA honor guards received caskets containing the remains from their ROK counterparts.

Xing Haiming, Chinese ambassador to the ROK, placed the Chinese national flag on each of the caskets. Members of a Chinese delegation for the handover bowed in front of the caskets to show their respect.

Chang Zhengguo, China's vice-minister of veterans affairs, said at the airport that 2021 marks the eighth consecutive year for the handover of Chinese soldiers' remains between the two nations.

Chang said China is grateful to related authorities and staff in the ROK for their efforts and it will further deepen its cooperation and communication with the ROK to return the remains of other Chinese soldiers.

The remains and personal items, which were excavated from six regions in the ROK between 2019 and 2020, were laid in caskets at a ceremony in Incheon on Wednesday morning.

Led by CPV commander-in-chief Peng Dehuai, a total of 2.9 million Chinese People's Volunteer Army soldiers fought in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and nearly 200,000 of them died in combat.

The ROK began recovering the remains of the fallen soldiers in 2000. A special unit was established by the ROK Army in 2003 to take charge of the recovery.

The ROK has returned the remains of 825 Chinese soldiers since 2014.

China's Ministry of Veterans Affairs announced on Wednesday that its local branches have identified four of the 117 fallen soldiers returned in September 2020, and managed to find and contact their relatives.