American soldier is identified from remains handed over by North Korea last year

A Defense Department agency has identified a Korean War soldier whose remains were among 55 sets turned over by North Korea last year after a historic summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.

Sgt. James Ernest Smith Jr., 21, of Sedgwick, Kansas, was reported missing Nov. 25, 1950, after his unit was attacked near Kujang-dong, North Korea, said a statement issued Tuesday by the Hawaii-based Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Smith — who served with Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division — died the following January at a temporary prisoner of war camp near Pukchin-Tarigol, according to several Americans who survived the war.

DPAA scientists identified Smith’s remains Aug. 19 using “anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence,” the statement said. “Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis.”

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