The nation previously promised to return the remains as part of a larger diplomatic agreement between Trump and Kim Jong Un.
North Korean officials skipped out on a planned meeting with U. S. officials to discuss the return of remains belonging to American soldiers killed in the Korean War, CNN reported Thursday. The meeting was scheduled to be held in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, but North Korean officials simply never showed up.
According to a senior U. S. official who spoke with CNN, the North Koreans gave no explanation for their absence.
The snub comes weeks after President Trump bragged at a rally in Duluth, Minnesota that North Korea had already returned the remains of at least 200 U. S. soldiers, and was planning to return more.
“We got back our great fallen heroes, the remains,” he said, declaring his diplomatic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12 a victory. “In fact, today already 200 have been sent back.”
Speaking more broadly, he added, “I got along with Kim Jong Un.… And that’s a good thing, not a bad thing. These people…said, ‘I can’t believe it. He’s giving away so much.’ You know what I gave away? A meeting.”
Many experts have since pointed out the meeting was a relative bust, with the United States appearing conciliatory to a genocidal dictator, while receiving no firm commitments from Kim in return. The pact between the two leaders, details only that the two nations will “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
The administration later clarified that U. S. officials had sent 100 transport cases for those remains to North Korea, but noted formal plans for their return and transfer had not yet been established. As of this week, no progress had been made.
“The North Koreans were just messing around, not serious about moving forward,” the senior U. S. official told CNN Thursday, referring to the scrapped logistical meeting.
