Transfer of People's Volunteer Army soldiers' remains from South Korea to China
The Transfer of People's Volunteer Army soldiers' remains from South Korea to China (Chinese: 中國軍遺骸送還; Korean: 중국군 유해 송환) is the process of ongoing handover of the remains of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army during the decades after the ceasefire of the Korean War. Following agreement between South Korea and China, the remains of Chinese People's Volunteer Army personnel buried in South Korea are regularly exhumed and ceremoniously handed over. The remains of a total of 716 personnel have been handed over on seven occasions.
Background
After the Korean War ceasefire, the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC) established a temporary department in 1954 named The Committee of Registration of Cemetery. The Chinese also established a counterpart temporary department to take charge of the handing over of the remains of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army. From September 1954, in nearly one month, China had received over ten thousand remains from the Army. Thereafter, the remains founded by South Korea were transferred and buried in North Korea by the Chinese in the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC).[1] In 1973, the Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Il-sung built eight cemeteries for the Chinese People's Volunteer Army in Hoechang County, South Pyongan Province.[2] During 1981 and 1989, through the government of North Korea, the government of South Korea handed over 42 remains of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army.[3][1]
In 1991, North Korea and China withdrew their representation in the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC, Searching for the remains of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army was discontinued.[1] In 1997, through North Korea, South Korea handed over the remains of one member of the Army. Thereafter, North Korea rejected further requests by South Korea to make handovers.[3] Any remains found later were buried in a Chinese army cemetery at Paju, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, which was built in 1996.[1]
During the Two Sessions in China in 2011, Liu Changle, the deputy director of Education, Science, Health and Sports Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, proposed to take the remains of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army home;[2] in the meantime, the Chinese Government used the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote the work of taking the remains of the Chinese army home.[2] Around 115,2175 Chinese army personnel are calculated to be buried overseas, 99% of them in the Korean Peninsula.[2]
Negotiation
During the visit of South Korean president Park Geun-hye in June 2013, China and South Korea discussed the problem of the remains of Chinese Volunteer Army in Korea. On 5 December the two countries held further discussions in Seoul and signed a summary of their discussions. On 19 December, both parties began to excavate the remains, and on 22 January 2014, they met again in Beijing and signed a second summary of their discussions, and agreed to meet before Qingming every year.[4]
Handover batches
| Batch | Time | Number of remains |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | March, 2014 | 437 |
| 2 | March, 2015 | 68 |
| 3 | March, 2016 | 36 |
| 4 | March, 2017 | 28 |
| 5 | March, 2018 | 20 |
| 6 | April, 2019 | 10（remains & relics） |
| 7 | September, 2020 | 117（1368 corresponding relics） |
The first batch
The first handing over ceremony took place in March, 2014.
On March 17, the both parties initiated the ceremony of handing over. The first batch of remains were found through excavation by South Korea in various areas such as Gangwon Province and Gyeonggi Province. Many remains contain no information of the dead soldiers.[6][4] The first batch of remains was first calculated to be 425. In a later calculation, the Korean part found another 12 remains. Therefore, the final total was 437.[2] To welcome the coming home of the remains, a martyr memorial, Square of the Volunteer Army in Shenyang, was built.[1]
At 6:30 am on March 28, China and South Korea held a handover ceremony for the remains of 437 volunteers in Korea at Incheon International Airport. The Chinese representative, Zou Ming, official from the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China, as well as the Korean representative, Deputy Chief of Arms Control, Ministry of National Defense of South Korea Moon Sang-kyun, signed the handover letter at the scene;[2] the South Korean side sent 22 special vehicles to transport the remains of the volunteer soldiers.[7] After the Chinese Air Force's special planes entered China's airspace, two J-11s came to escort.[8] The welcome ceremony was held at the Shenyang Taoxian International Airport, China at 11:30 am. Zhang Gaoli, then Vice Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Xu Qiliang, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Yan Junqi, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Wang Yong, State Councilor, and Su Rong, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC attended the ceremony.[2]
At 12 o 'clock pm , under the escort of honor guards, the remains of the volunteers were put on the coffin hearse, which were then buried in the Shenyang Martyrs Cemetery. The reasons for why the soldiers were buried there were that the Shenyang Martyrs Cemetery was big, most of the volunteer soldiers came from northeast China, and the "fallen leaves return to the roots" ideology.[4]
The second batch
On March 20, 2015, China and South Korea held a handover ceremony of human remains at Incheon Airport. The Chinese representative, Vice Minister of Civil Affairs of China, Dou Yupei, and the South Korean representative, Minister of Defense of South Korea, Bai Chengzhou, attended the ceremony and signed the handover document at the scene.[2] At 11:00 a.m., the Chinese Air Force IL-76 carrying the remains landed at Taoxian Airport in Shenyang, under the escort of two J-11B fighters.[9] The repatriation ceremony of the remains of the second batch of volunteers was held at the airport. More than 260 officers and soldiers from an electronic countermeasures regiment and a mechanized infantry regiment (Chinese: 团; pinyin: tuan) were responsible for various parts of the ceremony. The Shenyang Civil Affairs Bureau and the Shenyang Military Region counted the number of coffins. After receiving three bows, the coffins were transported to the temporary storage of the coffin in Shenyang Martyrs Cemetery. The 68 remains of this batch were exhumed in places such as Laoyili and Geguli in the city of Paju.[9]
At 10:00 am on March 21, the burial ceremony of 68 volunteer remains was held in Shenyang Martyrs Cemetery. Four hundred attendees, along with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, People's Liberation Army General Political Department, Shenyang Military Region, Korean War veterans and soldiers relatives, and primary and secondary school students, attended the ceremony.[2]
The third batch
On January 27, 2016, the two countries discussed the repatriation of the remains of Volunteers Army in Beijing. The remains of the soldiers were exhumed from March to November 2015 in Yeoncheon and Tiewon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.[10]
On the afternoon of March 28, 2016, China and the ROK held encoffining work in Paju. On March 31, the Il76 transport aircraft of China's Air Force's, escorted by two J-11 fighter jets, arrived at Shenyang, carrying the coffins that contained 36 remains of soldiers. The Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Political Work Department of the CMC, the Civil Affairs Department of Liaoning Province, and the Army Organs of the Northern Theater Command attended the receiving ceremony.[10]
The fourth batch
On February 27, 2017, a Working group led by Li Guigang, an official of Ministry of Civil Affairs, PRC, and a working group led by Brigadier Jang Hsuk-ming, Undersecretary for Arms Control of the Ministry of National Defense of the Repbulic of Korea (ROK) completed consultations and signed a summary of the talks on the transfer of the fourth batch of remains in Seoul.
China and the Republic of Korea jointly held a burial ceremony for the remains of volunteers in Incheon, ROK, on March 20, 2014. The 28 repatriated remains were exhumed between March and November 2016
On March 22, the ROK handed over the remains of 28 volunteers to China at incheon Airport; Vice Minister of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China Sun Shaocheng attended the handover ceremony at Incheon Airport. It is the first high-level Chinese official to visit the ROK since the THAAD deployment.
The fifth batch
At 10:00 on March 28, 2018, China and South Korea held the handover ceremony of the fifth batch of the remains of the Volunteer Army at Incheon Airport. Gao Xiaobing, Vice Minister of Civil Affairs of China, Qiu Guohong, Chinese Ambassador to South Korea, and Song Yongwu, Minister of Defense of South Korea participated. At 11:20, a special plane of the Chinese Air Force carrying the remains and relics of 20 volunteers landed at Shenyang Taoxian Airport. More than 200 people from Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission, the Army of Liaoning Province and the Northern Theater Command participated in the ceremony.
On March 29, the remains of the returning volunteers were buried in the Shenyang Martyrs Cemetery. The Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission, the Liaoning Provincial Government, the Shenyang Municipal Government, and Northern Theater Command, the Liaoning Provincial Military Region, and the Armed Police Liaoning Corps, More than 300 people, including family members of volunteer soldiers, representatives of Korean War veterans, students, and military officers and soldiers attended the funeral ceremony. Cui Fenglin, Vice Governor of Liaoning Province presided over the ceremony and the ceremony started at 10:00.
The sixth batch
On the morning of January 23, 2019, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of China and the Ministry of National Defense of South Korea conducted consultations in Beijing on the handover of the sixth batch of Volunteer Corps remains. Afterwards, the two sides signed the summary of the meeting and agreed to hold a joint encoffinning ceremony on April 1. The remains and relics were handed over on the 3rd of April.
On March 6, the work team of the Ministry of National Defense of South Korea confirmed that among the 15 remains of Korean War victims excavated in Inje, Hoengseong, Hongcheon, Yeoncheon and other places from 2017 to 2018, 10 of them were Chinese soldiers’ remains.
On April 1, an encoffining ceremony in Incheon was held for the remains and relics of the sixth batch of 10 volunteers. On April 3, at Incheon Airport, China and South Korea held a handover ceremony for the remains of the 6th batch of remains of Volunteer Army at Incheon Airport. Representatives of both sides signed the handover agreement on the scene. Vice Minister of Veterans Affairs of China Qian Feng led the Chinese handover delegation. Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Qiu Guohong covered the national flag on the coffin of the volunteer army. At 11:36, the Chinese Air Force plane carried the remains of 10 volunteers and 145 relics and landed at Shenyang Airport. More than 200 people from the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission, Liaoning Province and the Northern Theater Army attended the reception ceremony. Director Qin Zhe of the Veterans Affairs Office of Liaoning Province presided over.
The seventh batch
At noon on September 26, 2020, China and South Korea held an encoffinning ceremony for the remains of the volunteers in Incheon. On the 27th, China and South Korea held a handover ceremony for the remains of the 7th batch of Volunteers at Incheon Airport. Cui Jonggeon, the first official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea, and Chang Zhengguo, Vice Minister of Veterans Affairs of China attended the ceremony as representatives of the two countries. The 117 corpses handed over were excavated in Arrow Hill (the battle area of the Battle of White Horse) in the North Korean Demilitarized Zone in 2019.
The special plane of the Chinese Air Force carrying out the transportation task this time is Yun-20, number 01, with two J-11Bs escorting it in Chinese airspace. At 12:00 on the 27th, the special plane landed at Shenyang Airport; after landing, the standby fire truck saluted the special plane with water salute. After the remains and relics of the volunteers returned to China, the identities of three volunteer soldiers were confirmed through the relics. The relics include a commemorative medal made by the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in 1951 for the war to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
References
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- "中韩携手送志愿军遗骸回家 两国敌对关系成历史". People's Daily. 2014-03-19. Archived from the original on 2019-07-13.
- "英雄回家！第七批在韩志愿军烈士遗骸装殓". China Central Television. 2020-09-30. Archived from the original on 2020-10-01.
- "中韩将交接第七批在韩中国人民志愿军烈士遗骸". Ministry of Veterans Affairs. 2020-09-23.
- "117位在韩志愿军烈士遗骸归国 迎回仪式上这些细节令人动容". China Central Television. 2020-09-27.
- "张高丽出席在韩中国人民志愿军烈士遗骸回国迎接仪式". Xinhua News Agency. 2014-03-28. Archived from the original on 2020-09-27. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
- "英雄回家！五年间共有589位志愿军烈士遗骸归国". China Central Television. 2019-04-01. Archived from the original on 2019-04-01.
- "韩国第4次向中方归还志愿军遗骸". Deutsche Welle. 2017-03-22. Archived from the original on 2017-03-24.
- "归来，以英雄的方式：第三批在韩志愿军烈士遗骸回国". Central Military Commission. 2016-04-01. Archived from the original on 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2020-09-27. Unknown parameter
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