China remembers 437 lost soldiers
Print Edition
THE remains of 437 Chinese soldiers killed during the Korean War more than 60 years ago returned home yesterday for a final burial.
A plane carrying the diminutive coffins touched down in the northeastern city of Shenyang, where there was a state cemetery for the nation’s war dead.
At the ceremony, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli praised the outstanding service of the Chinese People’s Volunteers during the war.
Though it has been more than 60 years since the war, the CPVs and their commendable military service have never been forgotten, he said.
“We are holding this grand ceremony to praise the CPV martyrs. Our deepest thoughts are with them and our highest respect goes to them,” he said.
Victory in the Korean War safeguarded New China’s security and dignity and preserved peace in Asia and the world as a whole, Zhang said, adding that the spirit displayed by the soldiers will always be a “valuable asset” of the Chinese people.
Earlier, the coffins, each draped in a Chinese flag, were carried by Chinese soldiers to the aircraft at South Korea’s Incheon airport for the flight to Shenyang.
China fought alongside North Korea in the 1950-53 conflict.
Its involvement enabled North Korea forces to drive back South Korea and US troops, and ultimately the armistice line was drawn across the Korea Peninsula near the prewar 38th parallel border.
Ma Huaicheng, an 81-year-old veteran of the war who lives in Henan Province, welcomed the return. “This is a good thing and a very big comfort for our dead comrades-in-arms and their friends and relatives,” he said.
“They sacrificed their lives in a foreign land and it’s worthwhile for us, the living, to commemorate. It can also teach the younger generations to treasure peace and oppose war,” said Ma, who stayed on in North Korea until 1958 to aid in its reconstruction.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye offered to return the remains as a goodwill gesture during a visit to Beijing last June.
“This is a new milestone in bilateral relations and is expected to serve as a good example of promoting peace in Northeast Asia,” South Korean defense ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok said.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said: “We believe the cooperation will enhance friendship between our two countries.”
The transfer comes in time for the Qingming Festival, or tomb-sweeping day, when people clean the graves of their ancestors. This year the festival falls next Saturday.
In 1996, South Korea designated a cemetery plot in Paju, close to the border with North Korea, where the remains of Chinese and North Korean soldiers still on South Korean soil could be buried together. Work on exhuming the Chinese bodies for repatriation began in December.
China and South Korea have also agreed to set up a mechanism for further repatriations before Qingming every year.
More than 700 North Korean soldiers are also interred at Paju, but Pyongyang has ignored Seoul’s offer to return them despite talks on the issue.
The site also holds the bodies of more than two dozen North Korean commandos killed in the daring but ultimately unsuccessful 1968 attack on the presidential palace in Seoul.
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