Voices calling for the resumption of the excavation of remains of GIs in the territory of the DPRK that had been suspended are being heard from within the U.S. recently.

Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico State, the chairman of the Coalition of Families of Korean & Cold War POW/MIAs, and others at a seminar at George Washington University in the U.S. on June 23 reportedly asked the U.S. government to pay heed to the resumption of the excavation of remains of GIs, saying that "the lifetime hope for thousands of Americans is to bring home their loved one still missing in North Korea. It is a wound that never healed. The path to finding that closure will open only when North Korean and U.S. leaders decide to pursue this humanitarian mission other than their political differences."

On the 66th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War on June 24, three members of the House of Representatives of U.S. Congress who are Korean War veterans submitted to the House of Representatives a resolution in their joint name demanding the U.S. government immediately come out for talk with North Korea to confirm the identities of GIs who died or remain unaccounted for during the Korean War and to bring back their remains.

It is by no means fortuitous that incumbent lawmakers and NGOs in the U.S. are taking the administration to the task for the resumption of the recovery mission.

By origin, the excavation of remains of GIs within the territory of the DPRK was started as a humanitarian measure taken by the DPRK at repeated earnest request made by the U.S. administration, the Korean War veterans and bereaved families to finally settle the issue of the identification of missing and unaccounted Korean War veterans.

At that time it was a thing totally beyond imagination to excavate and send the remains of U.S. imperialist aggressors who inflicted unspeakable misfortune and pain on the Korean people in the past Fatherland Liberation War and, furthermore, it was a thing that could not be allowed for soldiers of hostile country to go about in the territory of the DPRK.

But the army and people of the DPRK, taking into consideration the ardent desire of bereaved families to have even the remains of their kinsmen who met deaths in the Korean War be buried in their native places, rendered cooperation for the smooth excavation on more than 30 occasions for nearly ten years since 1996, with magnanimity from humanitarian stand, though the DPRK-U.S. relations were acute.

Members from the U.S. side who had taken part in the joint excavation repeatedly expressed gratitude for the humanitarian measure and active cooperation rendered by the DPRK.

However, afterwards the U.S. totally denied the sincere efforts made by the DPRK and the minds of bereaved families of those who took part in the war and unilaterally suspended the excavation work under the pretext of "threat to security" and went so impudent as to abuse such humanitarian issues as the excavation of remains for meeting Washington's political purpose on several occasions and tried to shift the blame for the suspension of the excavation work on to the DPRK.

In September 2014 the then U.S. Defense Secretary Hagel made groundless assertion at a memorial ceremony for the "day of POWs and missing persons" that "the resumption of the excavation of remains depends on North Korea's implementation of the resolutions of UN Security Council" even though he said "it is the firm stand of the government never to forget missing GIs, find out them to the last man and let them come to the fold of their families". Military authorities including a spokesperson for the Defense Department maintained that the "North Korean government's provocative act is the reason for the suspension of the excavation of remains".

Even at this moment the U.S. administration is making sophism that the resumption is only possible when North Korea stops provocation and shows its will to follow through on the UN Security Council's resolutions and there is ensuing improvement in the bilateral relations, while shelving Washington's responsibility for disrupting the excavation.

It is natural that Americans can not favor the attitude of the administration which always finds fault with others while abusing even humanitarian issue for meeting its political purposes, being obsessed by inveterate repugnance and hostility toward the DPRK.

We do not care whether the U.S., a party directly concerned with the excavation work of remains of GIs who had become forlorn wandering spirit, is interested in the resumption of the excavation or not.

The U.S. is mistaken if it thinks it can resume the excavation work at its will now as it suspended the work unilaterally.

With no sleight of hand can the U.S. evade from the responsibility for disrupting such humanitarian work as the excavation of remains of GIs, while pursuing its hideous hostile policy toward the DPRK.