Missing in Action - Korean War

Korean War

There are many missing service personnel from the Korean War. It is thought that 13,000 South Korean soldiers and 2,000 U.S. soldiers are buried in the Korean Demilitarized Zone alone. The U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the equivalent South Korean command are actively involved in trying to locate and identify remains of both countries' personnel.

In the United States armed forces, the 8,177 service members listed as missing in action constituted over 15 percent of the total killed in the conflict. In August 1953, General James Van Fleet, who had led US and UN forces in Korea, estimated that "a large percentage" of those soldiers listed missing in action were alive.

The 1991–1993 United States Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs investigated some outstanding issues and reports related to the fate of U.S. service personnel still missing from the Korean War.

Remains of missing service personnel from the Korean War are periodically recovered and identified.

According to the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office there are still 7,989 U.S. servicemen still unaccounted for from the Korean War.

While the United States knew in 1953 that at least 900 troops were held captive by North Korea and never released, this information was never released. Historians suggest this was because Americans would have demanded their soldiers be returned home. In 1996, the Defense Department stated that there was no clear evidence any of the prisoners were still alive. As of 2005, at least 500 South Korean prisoners of war were believed to be still detained by the North Korean regime.

A number of Australian military personnel have also never been recovered from Korea.