Beijing, Apr 22 (EFE).- A Chinese Y-20B military aircraft landed Wednesday in Shenyang from South Korea carrying the remains of 12 Chinese soldiers who fought in the Korean War, along with 146 personal belongings, state media reported.
This is the 13th repatriation organized jointly by China and South Korea since 2014, under a bilateral agreement, bringing the total number of recovered remains to 1,023.
The handover ceremony took place at Incheon International Airport in Seoul, where the coffins were draped with Chinese flags and escorted with military honors.
The remains were then transferred to the aircraft, which was escorted by four J-20 fighter jets upon entering Chinese airspace.
Most of the Chinese soldiers who died in the conflict, which involved more than 2 million combatants sent by Beijing in support of North Korea, remain buried in North Korean territory.
According to official figures, some 197,600 lost their lives, although Western estimates put that number higher.
In Shenyang, a city located about 350 kilometers from the North Korean border, the remains of the deceased will be transferred to the martyrs’ cemetery built in 1952 to house the soldiers who died in the conflict.
In the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, there is a memorial to the Chinese soldiers who died in the conflict, which has been visited by Chinese leaders in recent years during their trips to the country.
The Korean War, known in China as the ‘War to Resist US Aggression and Help Korea’, has once again become a focus of intense attention in the country in recent years amid tensions with Washington and following the release of patriotic films such as ‘Battle of Changjin Lake’ (2021), the second highest-grossing film in Chinese cinema history. EFE
imh/tw
