Pyongyang, October 13 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People's Army issued the following statement on Oct. 13:
It was the U.S. that suspended the unearthing of the remains of GIs which had been under way in the territory of the DPRK as part of the extremely hostile policy towards it, but the U.S. Department of Defense recently resorted to the base move to shift the responsibility for it on to the DPRK.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, addressing a ceremony of commemorating "the day of POWs and missing persons in action" on Sept. 19, asserted that it was the U.S. stand not to forget those missing GIs in action but find out them to the last one and make sure that they were handed to their families, while claiming that the DPRK was to blame for the failure to resume the unearthing of the remains of GIs in its territory. He talked such rubbish that this problem depends on the implementation of the resolution of the UN Security Council.

Earlier, the U.S. Department of Defense in its statement shamelessly passed the buck for the suspension of the unearthing to the DPRK by claiming as follows: Remains of 229 GIs had been unearthed in north Korea for nearly a decade since 1996 but the work of a U.S. group to unearth those remains was suspended due to the "threat to the security" of the group in 2005. It was agreed in October 2011 to resume the work, but the agreement could not be implemented because of the March 2012 ballistic missile launch and nuclear test by the DPRK and various other "threats of provocations" and "the U.S. will maintain its present stance till north Korea shows its will and action to implement the resolution of the UNSC".

According to the statement, the above-said work seemed to start and come to suspension at the request of the DPRK.

As a matter of fact, the work started at the repeated and earnest requests of the U.S. administration keen to finally settle the issue of the missing GIs killed in the Korean War and the Korean War veterans organization and the bereaved families.

In consideration of the bitter grudge of the Korean people against the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces who inflicted untold misfortune and sufferings upon them at that time and their resolution to take revenge upon them, it was something unimaginable even in a dream for the DPRK to unearth the remains of hateful aggressor troops and hand them to their families.

It was impermissible for soldiers of the hostile country to tour territories of the DPRK under the situation where the political and military tension between the DPRK and the U.S. reached an extreme phase.

But the army and people of the DPRK, prompted by their viewpoint on the future, not on the inglorious past, made a broadminded and courageous decision to make sure that the unearthing kicked off in consideration of the earnest desire of the bereaved families to see even remains of their kith and kin who died in the Korean war and get them buried in their native places and the fact that the above-said work is a humanitarian one.

That's why the joint unearthing of the remains of GIs had been under way without any serious deviation for the nearly ten years since 1996 thanks to the unprecedented humanitarian magnanimity on the part of the DPRK even under the situation where the U.S. hostile moves against the DPRK persisted.

As regards this, once the authorities including former American presidents, bereaved families and broad public organizations expressed deep thanks to the DPRK.

The said work was suspended not due to the DPRK but due to the U.S. brigandish and unilateral attitude of terming its satellite launch for peaceful purposes "a provocation."

Consequently, remains of at least 7 800 GIs reported missing during the past Korean war now look like no better than stones as land rezoning and other gigantic nature-remaking projects made progress in the DPRK.

The situation clearly proves that the words of the authorities concerned of the U.S. that it is the firm stand of the U.S. to negotiate with the DPRK so that the American soldiers who died in overseas battle sites were brought back to the last one and the humanitarian work is a matter different from politics were nothing but a lie and hypocrisy.

It is long since the organization for surveying and unearthing remains operating in the DPRK was disbanded due to the unilateral measure of suspending the work, pursuant to the U.S. administration's unreasonable hostile policy towards the DPRK

Lots of remains of GIs are left here and there uncared and carried away en masse due to construction projects of hydro-power stations, land rezoning and other gigantic nature-remaking projects, flood damage, etc. These undesirable consequences are the reality today.

History will curse and condemn the American administration for its unethical acts of unreasonably scuttling even such humanitarian work as unearthing of remains of GIs agreed by the DPRK and the U.S. owing to its brigandish hostile policy towards the former.

The Obama administration should not forget even a moment the proverb saying that even a skeleton cries out of yearning for the homeland.