The royal seal of Queen Munjeong, front , and the royal seal of King Hyeonjong are on display at "The Return of the Royal Seals" exhibition at the National Palace Museum of Korea, Friday. / Yonhap



By Kwon Mee-yoo

Royal seals from the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910), including those returned home from the United States after being looted, are on view at the National Palace Museum of Korea in central Seoul, starting Saturday.

The centerpieces of "The Return of the Royal Seals" exhibit are the royal seal of Queen Munjeong and the royal seal of King Hyeonjong, which were illegally taken out of Korea over 65 years ago. The two "eobo," or royal seals, were returned home in July, accompanied by President Moon Jae-in heading back to Korea from his first summit with U.S President Donald Trump.

The mid-Joseon era seal was in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), which purchased them from a private collector in 2000.

The Korean National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage studied Korean artifacts in the U.S. museums and found the looted seal and the country's Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) asked the U.S. to return the cultural assets to its rightful home.

The royal seal of Queen Munjeong is about 10x10 centimeters in size and in guilt bronze. It was produced in 1547 and reproduced in 1554, after being burnt in 1553. Joseon's 13th King Myeongjong created the seal to commemorate a eulogistic title given to his mother when she was ruling as regent.

King Hyeonjong's royal seal is made from jade and was created in 1651 to mark his becoming crown prince. It was in possession of the collector who sold Queen Munjeong's royal seal to the museum and later confiscated by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations along with Queen Munjeong's seal.

The seals were stored in the Jongmyo (the royal ancestral shrine) and assumed to be looted from the shrine during the 1950-53 Korean War at an unknown time, the CHA said.

The royal seals were used for ceremonial purpose and represent the legitimacy and authority of the state and royal family.

'Deokjongeobo' turns out to be reproduction

The exhibit also features other royal seals returned home in recent years.

"Deokjong Eobo," or the royal seal of King Deokjong, donated by the Seattle Art Museum in 2015 is one of them.

This seal sparked controversy as it was originally promoted as a 15th-century relic, but later turned out to be reproduced in the early 20th century.

Originally, the CHA announced that the seal was produced in 1471 by Joseon's ninth King Seongjong in honor of his late father King Deokjong (1438-1457).

However, research conducted after the return revealed that it was made after the 1924 robbery at the Jongmyo shrine.

Ven. Hyemun, the Buddhist priest who leads the civic group dedicated to reclaiming Korean cultural assets, criticized the CHA for self-praising its achievement.

The CHA explained that the royal seals in question are reproduced, but not fake.

"The seal was lost during the Japanese colonial era and there is a document proving that it was reproduced by the Joseon Craftwork Manufactory immediately after the theft and enshrined in Jongmyo. We didn't know it was a reproduction when we retrieved it from Seattle and later found out it was not from the 15th century," the CHA said.

The exhibit runs through Oct. 29. For more information, visit www.gogung.go.kr or call 02-3701-7500. </s> The North Korea leader was pictured laying a beautiful coloured flower wreath at the cemetery in South Phyongan province. Kim Jong-un stood before a huge statue of an armed North Korean solider as he paid his respects to the war dead. North Korea’s state media KCNA reported: “Kim Jong-un said that the Korean people would as ever take pride in having the creditable fraternal country and the great friend like the People's Republic of China.” The Korea War Armistice was signed on July 21, 1953 after three years of war and was designed to "ensure a complete cessation of hostilities and of all acts of armed force in Korea until a final peaceful settlement is achieved”.

The two Koreas are technically still at war because a peace treaty was never signed. The armistice was signed by representatives from the UN, Korean People’s Army and the Chinese People’s Army. Kim Jong-un also attended a ceremony at Fatherland Liberation War Martyrs Cemetery in Pyongyang where he met with participants of the 5th National Conference of War Veterans. The North Korean dictator also laid another wreath at the cemetery.

To mark the anniversary North Korea transferred 55 small, flag-draped cases carrying the suspected remains of US soldiers killed in the Korean War on Friday, officials said. The pledge to transfer war remains was missing in the 1950-53 conflict seen as a goodwill gesture by Kim Jung-un at his June summit with Donald Trump. President Trump on his Twitter account said: ”After so many years, this will be a great moment for so many families. Thank you to Kim Jong-un.” A White House statement earlier said: "We are encouraged by North Korea's actions and the momentum for positive change."

A US military transport plane flew to an airfield in North Korea's northeastern city of Wonsan to bring the remains to Osan air base in South Korea, the White House statement said. Soldiers in dress uniforms with white gloves were seen slowly carrying 55 small cases covered with the blue-and-white U.N. insignia, placing them one by one into silver vans waiting on the tarmac in Osan. Straight-backed officers looked on next to the flags of the United States, South Korea and the United Nations. A formal repatriation ceremony would be held at Osan on Wednesday, the White House said.

The remains would then be flown to Hawaii for further processing under the US Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the U.N. Command said in a statement. More than 7,700 US troops who fought in the Korean War remain unaccounted for, with about 5,300 of those lost in what is now North Korea. Before Friday's transfer of remains, the United States and North Korea had worked on so-called joint field activities to recover Korean War remains from 1996-2005. Washington halted those operations, citing concerns about the safety of its personnel as Pyongyang stepped up its nuclear programme. More than 400 caskets of remains found in North Korea were returned to the United States between the 1990s and 2005, with the bodies of some 330 other Americans also accounted for, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. </s> A South Korean salvage team has reportedly discovered the wreck of a Russian warship that is believed to still contain 200 tons of gold bullion and coins worth 150 trillion won ($130 billion).

The Russian Imperial Navy cruiser Dmitrii Donskoi, which was sunk in a naval battle 113 years ago, was discovered at a depth of more than 1,400 feet about one mile off the South Korean island of Ulleungdo, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The U.K. newspaper reported that a joint team made up of experts from South Korea, Britain and Canada discovered the wreck on Sunday. They had used two manned submersibles to capture footage of the vessel.

The images caught by the submersibles show “extensive damage to the vessel caused in an encounter with Japanese warships in May 1905, along with cannons and deck guns encrusted with marine growth, the anchor and the ship’s wheel,” the Telegraph reported.

There are reports that the Dmitrii Donskoi, which was scuttled during the Russo-Japanese war in 1905, went down with 5,500 boxes of gold bars and coins still in its holds to stop the Japanese seizing it.

The Seoul-based Shinil Group, which led the exploration that found the ship, hopes to raise it in October or November. It estimates the gold would have a value today of around $130 billion.

Half of any treasure found aboard the vessel would be handed over to the Russian government, the company said, while 10 percent of the remainder will be invested in tourism projects on Ulleungdo Island, including a museum dedicated to the vessel, The Daily Telegraph reported. </s> SEOUL: A US military aircraft flew the remains of more than 50 American servicemen out of North Korea on Friday, prompting a personal “thank you” from Donald Trump to Kim Jong Un.

The return of the remains — on the 65th anniversary of the end of the Korean War — marks the partial fulfilment of an agreement reached between the US president and North Korea’s leader at their historic summit in Singapore last month.

“After so many years, this will be a great moment for so many families. Thank you to Kim Jong Un,” Trump said in a tweet. The White House said it was “encouraged” by the return of the remains and the “momentum for positive change”.

“Today’s actions represent a significant first step to recommence the repatriation of remains from North Korea and to resume field operations in North Korea to search for the estimated 5,300 Americans who have not yet returned home,” it said.

After leaving the North Korean port city of Wonsan, the C-17 cargo plane landed at the Osan US Air Base in South Korea, where American soldiers stood in ceremonial ranks.

The plane — which had 55 sets of remains on board, according to the United Nations Command (UNC) in South Korea — came to a halt next to a group of 10 honour guards carrying the flags of the UN, the US and South Korea.

After the rear door was opened, other uniformed guards went aboard and re-emerged each carrying in their arms a box draped in a white-and-blue UN flag.They then slowly walked to awaiting vans, put the boxes in the vehicles and saluted, before the vans left the scene.

“It was a successful mission following extensive coordination,” General Vincent Brooks, commander of the UNC and United States Forces Korea, said in a statement.“Now, we will prepare to honour our fallen before they continue on their journey home.”

More than 35,000 Americans were killed on the Korean Peninsula during the war, out of which around 7,700 are still considered missing, including 5,300 in North Korea alone, according to the Pentagon.

Between 1990 and 2005, 229 sets of remains from the North were repatriated, but those operations were suspended when ties deteriorated over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

The remains flown to Osan on Friday are expected to be sent to Hawaii for forensic identification, following a formal repatriation ceremony next Wednesday.Trump has hailed his summit agreement with Kim as effectively ending the North Korean nuclear threat, although it contained only an ill-defined commitment on Pyongyang’s part to the “denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula” — a long way from the complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament demanded by Washington. The issue of repatriating remains of American war dead was seen as a far less contentious one, and the summit agreement specified the immediate return of those remains “already identified.”

According to US officials, North Korea is estimated to have as many as 200 sets of remains ready for delivery.Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, who has worked on repatriation issues and visited North Korea several times, warned that Pyongyang might hold up further repatriations in order to squeeze some cash out of the United States.

“They’ll give a certain amount of remains for free right away,” Richardson told the Washington Post. “But then they’ll say, ‘The next ones, we need to find them, locate them, restore them.’ And then they’ll start charging, and they’ll milk this.”

The initial repatriation provides the White House with a tangible result from the Singapore summit, which has otherwise failed to deliver on the denuclearisation expectations raised by the US president.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was despatched to Pyongyang in early July to nail down the North’s summit commitments — including returning the remains of US servicemen. </s> North Korea has returned the remains of what are believed to be US servicemen killed during the Korean War.

A US military plane has made a rare trip from a South Korean airbase to a coastal city in North Korea in order to retrieve the remains of the fallen servicemen.

During their summit last month, Kim Jong Un had promised Donald Trump that the handover would happen - making this the first tangible result from the talks.

A formal repatriation ceremony is going to be held at Osan air base in South Korea on 1 August, and on Thursday, serving US soldiers and a military honour guard lined the tarmac to receive the remains.

Image: The remains were carried in boxes covered in blue United Nations flags

They were carried in boxes covered in blue United Nations flags.

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Approximately, 7,700 US soldiers are listed as missing from the Korean War, which took place between 1950 and 1953 - and 5,300 of the remains are still believed to be in North Korea.

Millions died during the war, including 36,000 US soldiers.

:: How US can identify remains of soldiers who died 65 years ago

In a statement, the White House said: "Today, (Kim) is fulfilling part of the commitment he made to the president to return our fallen American service members.

"We are encouraged by North Korea's actions and the momentum for positive change."

Image: Guards carry boxes containing the remains upon the military plane's return to South Korea

On Twitter, Mr Trump added: "The Remains of American Servicemen will soon be leaving North Korea and heading to the United States! After so many years, this will be a great moment for so many families. Thank you to Kim Jong Un."

The transfer of the remains has coincided with the 65th anniversary of the 1953 armistice agreement that ended fighting, although North and South Korea are technically still at war because a peace treaty was never signed.

The remains are expected to be flown to Hawaii for scientific testing to identify them. </s> North Korea transferred 55 cases carrying the remains of soldiers killed in the Korean War, the White House said on Thursday, a first step by Pyongyang to implement an agreement made in a landmark summit in June in Singapore.

The repatriation of remains of U.S. soldiers missing in the 1950-53 conflict is seen as a modest diplomatic coup for U.S. President Donald Trump because it was one of the agreements reached during his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12.

"Today, (Kim) is fulfilling part of the commitment he made to the President to return our fallen American service members. We are encouraged by North Korea's actions and the momentum for positive change," the White House said in a statement.

A U.S. military transport plane flew to an airfield in North Korea's northeastern city of Wonsan to bring the remains to Osan air base in South Korea, the statement said.

Soldiers in dress uniforms with white gloves were seen slowly carrying 55 small cases covered with the blue-and-white United Nations insignia, placing them one by one into silver vans waiting on the tarmac in Osan.

Straight-backed officers looked on next to the flags of the United States, South Korea and the United Nations.

A formal repatriation ceremony would be held at Osan on Wednesday, the White House statement said.

The transfer of the remains coincided with the 65th anniversary of the 1953 armistice agreement that ended fighting, although the two Koreas are technically still at war because a peace treaty was never signed.

More than 7,700 U.S. troops who fought in the Korean War remain unaccounted for, with about 5,300 of those lost in what is now North Korea.

The pledge to transfer war remains was seen as a goodwill gesture by Kim at the June summit and, while it has taken longer than some U.S. officials had hoped, the handover will rekindle hopes for progress in nuclear talks.

Kim committed in a broad summit statement to work toward denuclearization but Pyongyang has offered no details about how it might go about this.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said the return of the remains could boost the momentum for the nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington.

The two Koreas agreed to hold general-level military talks on Tuesday to discuss ways to implement their own summit in April in which they vowed to defuse tensions, Seoul's defence ministry said on Friday.

Pyongyang has renewed calls for a declaration of the end of the Korean War, calling it the "first process for peace" and an important way Washington can add heft to security guarantees it has pledged in return for North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons.

The U.S. State Department says Washington is committed to building a peace mechanism to replace the armistice "when North Korea has denuclearized."

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, banning luxury goods said to include recreational sports equipment.

The United States has blocked a request by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to transfer sports equipment to North Korea so its athletes can participate in the Olympic Games, United Nations diplomats said on Thursday. </s> An American military plane was able to enter North Korea Friday to pick up the remains of U.S. soldiers who fought during the Korean War.

Marking the 65th anniversary of the 1950-53 conflict's armistice, the Air Force transport aircraft flew from South Korea early in the morning before returning from the North to Osan Air Base south of Seoul around 11 a.m. (02:00 GMT).

Sources cited by local news agency Yonhap said there were about 55 sets of remains on board.

They will be inspected before a planned ceremony next Wednesday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed with U.S. President Donald Trump on June 12 to the "immediate repatriation" of remains that had already been identified.

The White House welcomed the move, highlighting that the North Korean leader "is fulfilling part of the commitment he made to the President to return our fallen American service members".

"We are encouraged by North Korea’s actions and the momentum for positive change," said the office of the White House Press Secretary in a statement.

"Today’s actions represent a significant first step to recommence the repatriation of remains from North Korea and to resume field operations in North Korea to search for the estimated 5,300 Americans who have not yet returned home," the statement said.

As the American side was kept waiting, the matter was discussed when the U.S.-led UN Command held general-level talks with North Korea for the first time in nearly a decade earlier this month.

Before this latest development, official U.S. statistics showed that 7,699 American Korean War participants were still unaccounted for.

Meanwhile, the two Koreas will hold their own general-level military meeting next Tuesday, according to Seoul's defense ministry Friday.

Pyongyang apparently suggested the talks, which follow April's inter-Korean summit and their joint accord to ease border tensions. </s> North Korea is about to return some remains of US service members killed in the Korean War, a ­report said Wednesday.

South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said the remains could be returned on Friday, the 65th anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement that resulted in a cease-fire to the 1950-1953 war.

“North Korea recently took two truckloads of wooden boxes to be used for the remains repatriation. It’s expected to hand over the remains on July 27 as agreed upon,” a source told Yonhap.

Wooden boxes bearing the remains have been ­sitting for weeks in the border ­village of Panmunjom.

The remains will be airlifted to a forensic lab in Hawaii.

Returning the remains was one of the agreements struck between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their June summit in Singapore. </s> North Korea on Friday returned the remains of what are believed to be U.S. servicemen killed during the Korean War, the White House said, with a U.S military plane making a rare trip into North Korea to retrieve 55 cases of remains.

The handover follows through on a promise North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made to U.S. President Donald Trump when the leaders met in June and is the first tangible result from the much-hyped summit. Trump welcomed the repatriation and thanked Kim in a tweet.

The United Nations Command said 55 cases of remains were retrieved from North Korea. The White House earlier confirmed that a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft containing remains of fallen service members had departed Wonsan, a Northern coastal city, on its way to the Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, near the South Korean capital of Seoul. A formal repatriation ceremony will be held there Wednesday.

At the air base, U.S. servicemen and a military honour guard lined up on the tarmac to receive the remains, which were carried in boxes covered in blue UN flags.

About 7,700 U.S. soldiers are listed as missing from the 1950-53 Korean War, and 5,300 of the remains are believed to still be in North Korea. The war killed millions, including 36,000 American soldiers.

U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, in a statement from the UN Command, called the retrieval mission successful. "Now, we will prepare to honour our fallen before they continue on their journey home."

Following the honours ceremony on Wednesday, the remains will be flown to Hawaii for scientific testing. A series of forensic examinations will be done to determine if the remains are human and if the dead were American or allied troops killed in the conflict.

Trump late Thursday tweeted the repatriation was occurring and said, "After so many years, this will be a great moment for so many families. Thank you to Kim Jong-un."

Officials in North Korea had no comment on the handover on Friday, the 65th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, which the country celebrated as the day of "victory in the fatherland liberation war."

Despite soaring rhetoric about denuclearization before Kim and Trump met in Singapore, their summit ended with only a vague aspirational goal for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing when and how that would occur.

The repatriation of remains could be followed by stronger North Korean demands for fast-tracked discussions to formally end the war, which was stopped with an armistice and not a peace treaty. South Korea's Defence Ministry also said the North agreed to general-level military talks next week at a border village to discuss reducing tensions across the countries' heavily armed border.

The U.S. military last month said that 100 wooden "temporary transit cases" built in Seoul were sent to the Joint Security Area at the Korean border as part of preparations to receive and transport remains in a dignified manner. U.S. Forces Korea spokesperson Col. Chad Carroll also said, at the time, that 158 metal transfer cases were sent to a U.S. air base and would be used to send the remains home.

North Korea last turned over remains in 2007

The remains are believed to be some of the more than 200 that North Korea has held in storage for some time, and were likely recovered from land during farming or construction. The vast majority of the war dead, however, have yet to be located and retrieved from cemeteries and battlefields across the countryside.

Efforts to recover American war dead had been stalled for more than a decade because of a standoff over North Korea's nuclear program and a previous U.S. claim that security arrangements for its personnel working in the North were insufficient.

From 1996 to 2005, joint U.S.-North Korea military search teams conducted 33 recovery operations that collected 229 sets of American remains. The last time North Korea turned over remains was in 2007, when Bill Richardson, a former UN ambassador and New Mexico governor, secured the return of six sets.

The North marked Friday's anniversary with ceremonies at war-related memorials; the capital Pyongyang and other cities were decked out in national flags and bright red banners. For the first time since 2015, Kim Jong-un has announced a general amnesty will be granted for prisoners who have committed crimes against the state.

North Korea has held out the return of remains as a symbol of its goodwill and intention to improve ties with Washington. Officials have bristled, however, at criticism from the U.S. that it seeks to profit from the repatriations by demanding excessive fees for handling and transporting the remains.
Two Joseon Dynasty-era royal seals which were repatriated last July from the U.S. after being illegally taken out by an American soldier during the Korean War, are on exhibit at the National Palace Museum of Korea.