Honoring fallen heroes

A guard of honor on Wednesday during a ceremony to enshrine 630 sets of recently unearthed remains of troops killed during the 1950-53 Korean War. The ceremony took place at the Seoul National Cemetery, bringing together some 350 people, including Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo and representatives of veterans’ groups. The war remains were discovered during excavation work between March and November and include around 260 sets discovered on the Arrowhead Ridge inside the demilitarized zone. Of them, only eight were identified and returned to their families. For next year, the ministry vowed to further expand the excavation project inside the DMZ. Last year, the two Koreas pledged to carry out joint excavation work in April on the ridge, one of the fiercest battlefields during the war, where about 300 soldiers from South Korea, the United States and France are believed to be buried. But the project was conducted by the South Korean military alone, as Pyongyang has remained mum. [YONHAP]