South Korea and China agreed Tuesday to hold a ceremony next month to repatriate 68 sets of remains of Chinese soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War to their homeland, the defense ministry here said, according to Yonhap News Agency.
The agreement came at a working-level meeting in Seoul earlier in the day to discuss necessary follow-up steps for Seoul's repatriation pledge made during the Seoul-Beijing security talks last week in a symbolic gesture of friendship toward its former battlefield foe.
"The two sides agreed to hold a ceremony to hand over 68 bodies of Chinese servicemembers and their keepsakes around March 20," the ministry said in a release.
The remains were unearthed after March 2014 when South Korea returned the bodies of 437 Chinese soldiers killed on Korean soil during the war on humanitarian grounds, after President Park Geun-hye made such an offer during a 2013 summit with her Chinese counterpart.
During the Korean War, China fought alongside North Korea against the U.S.-backed Allied forces. Historical records show that more than 1 million Chinese soldiers were killed in the three-year conflict.