Returning Home

[Anchor Lead]

The remains of 29 people who were reported missing during the Jeju uprising on April 3rd, 1948 were finally identified and reunited with their families. However, there are still many more remains to be recovered and identified.

[Pkg]

[Soundbite] "I want nothing more now that I've found my brother."

The remains of the Jeju Uprising victims were finally held in the arms of their families. It took 70 years for them to be reunited. Families that saw familiar names on the burial boxes teared up as they were overwhelmed with emotion.

[Soundbite] Oh Gyeong-seon(Family of the late Oh Seong-do) : "He was my only brother and I lived alone since he went missing. I was so deeply sad I even made him a grave."

DNA testing helped identify the remains of 29 people. Among them, 22 were determined to have been executed by court martial in 1949 and six died while in preventive custody. One set of remains belonged to a soldier. All the remains were discovered in the vicinity of the Jeju Airport runway between 2007 and 2009. The grieving families held a joint memorial service before laying the remains to rest at a memorial park. 404 sets of remains were discovered since the recovery project for the victims of the Jeju incident started in 2006. But nearly 70% of the excavated remains have not been identified.

[Soundbite] Prof. Lee Soong-deok(College of Medicine, Seoul Nat'l Univ.) : "All the testing is over, but we had to defer the determination in some cases. I hope we can do additional testing on the family members."

More than 3,500 people were reported missing during the April incident in Jeju. Additional recovery and identification of the remains must proceed quickly as their families are growing older.