NORTH KOREA: Despite rising tensions over North Korea's nuclear programme, the United States will soon begin an expanded mission to recover the remains of Americans missing in the Korean War, a Pentagon official said yesterday.
The direct co-operation between Washington and Pyongyang in the project, which has been going on since 1996, stands in marked contrast to the Bush administration's refusal to engage the North bilaterally and its efforts to cut off flows of hard currency that underpin the communist government.
The latest expanded recovery project will pay Pyongyang $5 million this year.
Some US sources believe the value of the programme is more in the intelligence it allows the United States to gather than in the missing-in-action cases that have been resolved.
North Korea last week officially announced it possessed nuclear weapons and pulled out of talks involving six countries, leaving Washington scrambling for ways to step up pressure to get the long-stalled negotiations back on track.
Mr Larry Greer, a Defence Department spokesman, said that the Pentagon was moving ahead with technical preparations for a new remains recovery mission in April that would be the "biggest and widest one we have ever done".
Nearly 54,000 Americans died in the 1950-1953 Korean War and about 8,000 are still missing in action.
Meanwhile, North Korea will celebrate the 63rd birthday of its "Dear Leader", Mr Kim Jong-il, today with lavish praise from official media, adoring throngs united in song and the possibility of a rainbow over legendary Mount Paekdu.
Last year Mr Kim was celebrated as "the sun of the 21st century" and "the most prominent statesman in the present world" in official media reports.
"The birthday celebration is a way of reminding the public he's quite solidly in power," said Mr Michael Breen, author of Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader.
"The birthday usually means something additional in the food ration, which is presented as a gift from the Dear Leader.
"It could be a bit of meat, could be candy. It depends on what's available," Mr Breen said.