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Korean peninsula
ChinaDiplomacy

China stages solemn ceremony to welcome home remains of 117 soldiers killed in Korean war

  • PLA delegation and ageing veterans pay tribute at Shenyang airport as lost comrades return from South Korea
  • 45 police officers provide motorcycle escort as remains in wooden caskets draped with national flags are driven to a nearby cemetery

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A Chinese transport plane carrying the remains of 117 soldiers killed in the Korean war arrived in Shenyang on Sunday morning. Photo: AP
Laura Zhou
China held a high-profile ceremony on Sunday to receive the remains of more than 100 soldiers killed in the Korean war, as Beijing continues to push its nationalist campaign amid deteriorating relations with the United States.
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A PLA Air Force Y-20 transport aircraft carrying the remains of 117 service personnel arrived at Shenyang Taoxian International Airport in the capital of northeast China’s Liaoning province about 11.20am after leaving Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea earlier in the day. 

02:12

China stages high-profile ceremony to welcome home remains of 117 soldiers killed in Korean war

China stages high-profile ceremony to welcome home remains of 117 soldiers killed in Korean war
A delegation from the People’s Liberation Army and veterans of the war were at the airport to meet the plane, and after being unloaded, the wooden coffins containing the remains – each of which was draped with a national flag – were driven to a local cemetery escorted 45 by police motorcycle outriders.

According to state broadcaster CGTN, which provided live coverage of the handover ceremonies in Incheon and Shenyang, two Chinese J-11B fighters were sent to escort the Y-20 after it entered Chinese airspace.

A delegation from the PLA and veterans of the Korean war were at the airport to meet the plane carrying the remains. Photo: AP
A delegation from the PLA and veterans of the Korean war were at the airport to meet the plane carrying the remains. Photo: AP
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Li Jingxian, a deputy director at the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, told CGTN it was the first time China had used a home-grown Y-20 aircraft to repatriate the remains of its soldiers from South Korea, saying that doing so “better reflected the national image”.

The repatriation of remains from South Korea was the seventh since 2014. Beijing says that 360,000 members of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army were either killed or wounded in the war, though unofficial sources say the actual figure is probably much higher.

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