President Trump Thanks Kim Jong-Un For Fulfilling Promise On Korean War Remains

US President Donald Trump has thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un for 'fulfilling a promise' on returning the remains of missing US soldiers.

President Trump's comments came after a US military plane made a rare trip to North Korea to retrieve 55 cases of what are believed to be the remains of American servicemen killed during the Korean War. 

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.

The handover comes after the summit between the two leaders in June in Singapore.

President Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the the White House that a plane was carrying the remains "of some great fallen heroes from America back from the Korean War" and that "these incredible American heroes will soon lay at rest on sacred American soil".

He also said: "We have many others coming but I want to thank Chairman Kim in front of the media for fulfilling a promise that he made to me and I'm sure that he will continue to fulfil that promise as they search and search and search."

About 7,700 US 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.

US forces Korea commander Gen Vincent K Brooks said the retrieval mission had been successful.

"Now, we will prepare to honour our fallen before they continue on their journey home."

It is hoped that this handover will be first of many steps in the strengthening of relations between the US and North Korea.

However, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said although the transfer of the remains is a positive step, it remains "separate" from talks over North Korea's denuclearisation.

Speaking to reporters, he said: "This is obviously a gesture of carrying forward what they agreed to in Singapore and we take it as such.

"We also look at it as a first step of a restarted process. So we do want to explore additional efforts to bring others home."

The cases will be sent to Hawaii for a series of forensic examinations to determine if the remains are human and if the dead were American or allied troops killed in the conflict.

Mr Mattis said "we don't know who's in those boxes".