Missing Korean War soldiers identified

WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- The remains of two U.S. soldiers listed as missing since a major 1950 Korean War battle have been identified by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Using DNA analysis and dental records, a team from the Defense Department's POW/Missing Personnel Office worked with North Korean officials to identify Cpl. Robert Mason of Parkersburg, W.Va., and Joseph Meyer Jr. of Wahpeton, N.D. Both had been missing since the December 1950 Battle of Chosin Reservior between U.S. and allied forces and the Chinese Red Army in North Korea.

Both men will be buried Saturday, with Mason's remains to be interred in Belpre, Ohio, and Meyer's in Wahpeton.

According to a Defense Department news release, both soldiers were attached to the U.S. Army's 31st Regimental Combat Team that engaged the Chinese army in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, a conflict in which about 2,500 allied troops were killed and 5,000 wounded.

A joint U.S.-North Korean examined several Korean War-era burial sites between 2001 and 2005, concentrating in the Chosin Reservoir area. They used an array of forensic tools to identify the remains, including mitochondrial DNA and dental comparisons.

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