This photo taken on Nov. 22, 2023 shows the ribbon on a flower basket laid at a ceremony to lay the remains of the Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) martyrs in coffins in Incheon, South Korea. Photo: Xinhua

 


The remains of 43 Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) martyrs who lost their lives during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea will be returned to China from South Korea in late November, according to China's Ministry of Veterans Affairs.

This will mark the 11th repatriation of CPV martyrs' remains since the signing of a handover agreement between the two countries.

From 2014 to 2023, China and South Korea, in accordance with international laws and humanitarian principles, successfully completed 10 consecutive handovers involving the remains of 938 CPV martyrs in South Korea, along with related artifacts. Both sides have agreed to continue their cooperation in these efforts, according to Xinhua News Agency. 

The repatriation of CPV soldiers' remains from Korea has become a notable friendly event between China and South Korea, which even has significance for international peace, Lü Chao, an expert on the Korean Peninsula affairs at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday.

From China's perspective, the Chinese people have never forgotten the immortal achievements and great spirit of sacrifice of the CPV soldiers. Their spirit of fighting for the defense of world peace will be forever etched in our hearts, and it is the common wish of all ethnic groups in China to have them back, Lü said.

Some 70 years ago, the CPV crossed the Yalu River to fight the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea in 1953. 

A total of 2.9 million CPV soldiers entered the battlefield, and 197,653 of them sacrificed their lives in the war. The names of the martyrs can be found on a memorial wall at the CPV martyrs' cemetery in Shenyang. 

At the beginning of this year, China's Ministry of Veterans Affairs released the latest results of the search for relatives of the CPV soldiers in South Korea, and the relatives of 10 martyrs were successfully found through DNA comparisons of the remains, People's Daily reported. 

In recent years, the Martyrs' Remains Search and Identification Center of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs has been engaged in the organization, identification, and analysis of relics. They have gradually released leads for locating the relatives of martyrs and mobilized various sectors of society to jointly search for the families of the martyrs.

Relying on the National Martyrs' Remains DNA Identification Laboratory, a national DNA database for martyrs' remains and a DNA database for martyrs' relatives have been established. This has helped to solve the challenges of DNA recognition for remains and developed key technologies related to complex kinship identification, successfully confirming the identities of 20 martyrs, as of January 2024, the People's Daily reported.