The remains of 109 Chinese soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War will be returned to China from the Republic of Korea (ROK) on Thursday, the eighth batch of martyrs’ remains returned since 2014, following a handover agreement signed by the two countries.
The remains of the Chinese soldiers were casketed in the ROK on Wednesday at a ceremony held in Incheon, west of the capital Seoul.
The 109 remains and 1,226 related relics were excavated from six regions in the ROK between 2019 and 2020, according to the ROK Defense Ministry.
From 2014 to 2020, the ROK returned the remains of 716 Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV) martyrs killed in the Korean War, including 437 in 2014, 68 in 2015, 36 in 2016, 28 in 2017, 20 in 2018, 10 in 2019 and 117 in 2020.
A burial ceremony will be held in the CPV martyrs’ cemetery in the city of Shenyang, northeast China’s Liaoning Province, on Friday, after the aircraft carrying the remains lands at a Shenyang airport on Thursday, according to China’s Ministry of Veterans Affairs.
The CPV fought with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Army in the Korean War against the ROK army and U.S.-led UN forces.
Almost 200,000 CPV soldiers were confirmed killed in the war, with most buried on the Korean Peninsula.