Will North Korea’s return of soldiers’ remains buy a US exit from the Korean peninsula?

Donald Kirk says North Korea has used US soldiers’ remains as a moneymaking scheme in the past, and now may be after a bigger payoff – a peace declaration and exit of US troops from the Korean peninsula

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North Korean soldiers carry a coffin believed to contain the remains of a US soldier to the border with South Korea during repatriation ceremonies at the truce village of Panmunjom, South Korea, in October 1998. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:00am, 20 Jul 2018Updated: 10:30pm, 20 Jul 2018

The North Koreans are reluctant to talk about “denuclearisation” but are winning easy points exploiting the bones of about 5,300 American soldiers missing from the Korean war.

At every stage of discussion on the return of their remains, Pyongyang promotes a peace declaration also endorsed by South Korea's President Moon Jae-in. What could be a better time to get across the message than next week’s 65th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the war?

Wouldn’t that be the moment to transfer the first batch of the 200 sets of remains US President Donald Trump mistakenly announced had already been returned?

The North Koreans would love to replace the armistice with a peace treaty. That’s crucial to calling for withdrawal of the 28,500 US troops in South Korea. Moon has said he’s not in favour of US troops leaving, but the North Koreans and their Seoul mates are sure to ask, if we’re “at peace”, why should the Americans be here and why maintain the alliance?

The North Koreans will promote that argument, and are banking on Trump’s enthusiasm for searching for the remains as a means to that end.