Division-forced detour: North Korean soil, to U.S. Hawaii, to South Korea — a route 70 years in the making
June 5, 2026 | Crossing NK
SEONGNAM, South Korea — The question that defined Thursday’s repatriation ceremony was deceptively simple: why were the remains of South Korean soldiers resting in Hawaii? The answer — North Korea held the land where they fell, and South Korea could not reach it — encapsulates seventy years of division in a single, painful sentence.
Ten sets of South Korean remains arrived home from DPAA’s facility at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, where they had been stored after North Korea excavated and transferred them to the United States — first in the early 1990s, then again following the 2018 Singapore summit. Joint DNA analysis in Hawaii eventually confirmed their South Korean identity. It was the only route available: South Korea cannot access North Korean territory.
The ceremony, held at Seoul Air Base for the first time on South Korean soil, was a genuine exchange. Three sets of U.S. remains — excavated from South Korean battlefields in Yanggu in 2010, Sejong City in 2012, and Hongcheon in 2021 — were simultaneously repatriated to the United States.
UNC Commander General Xavier Brunson, quoting historian T.R. Fehrenbach, said the ceremony represented an unbroken promise, seventy years in the keeping: we do not leave our fallen behind. Defense Minister Ahn Kyu-baek noted that South Korea’s recovery agency has excavated over 13,000 sets of remains and confirmed 275 identities since 2007.
The South Korean remains received a nameles identification tag — bearing no name or service number, symbolizing the pledge to identify every soldier — while the American remains received an Arirang Scarf, a reproduction of a keepsake that U.S. troops sent home during the war. A flag-draping ritual re-draped each set of remains in the flag of the nation it was returning to.
A notable asymmetry went largely unremarked. Officials identified the excavation sites of the three American remains by precise location — Yanggu County, Hongcheon County in Gangwon Province, and Jeondon-myeon in Sejong City. The ten South Korean remains, by contrast, were described only as coming from ‘major Korean War battlefields on the peninsula.’ No official statement explicitly acknowledged that these remains originated in North Korean territory. The omission likely reflects diplomatic sensitivity toward Pyongyang, whose cooperation is needed for any future recovery efforts, or the fact that North Korea’s own excavation records may lack the specificity to cite a precise location.
Because the remains lie in enemy territory — North Korean soil South Korea cannot access — the United States serves as the intermediary, receiving the remains in Hawaii, determining nationality, and sending each soldier home.
The tragedy of Korea’s division is carried, quietly, in every single set of remains.
— Crossing NK News Team